PRESENTED 


'■^c::r^.  ^  ^^<^;^^2^ 


J.  W.  KIMBALL,  J.  A.  WHIPPLE, 

THK   AUTHOB  THE    PUBLISHER. 

May  14,  1884. 


J 


PRINCETON,  N.  J.  <f 


BV  4010  .K55  1884 
Kimball,  James  William, 

1812-1885. 
The  Christian  ministry 


THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY. 


THE 


V 


N^"* 


;*     JAN    9    1911 


Christian  Ministry 


MISCELLANIES  FOR  CANDIDATES 


FROM    THEIR   SINCERE    FRIEND   AND 
WELL-WISHER 

V 
JAMES    WILLIAM    KIMBALL 

AUTHOR   OF    "heaven,"     "FRIENDLY   WORDS   WITH    FELLOW 

PILGRIMS,"     "  ENCOURAGEMENTS  TO   FAITH," 

"  HOW  TO   SEE  JESUS,"    ETC. 


BOSTON 

J.    A.    WHIPPLE,    9    HAMILTON   PLACE 

NEW  YORK:    T.  Y.  CROWELL  &  CO. 

13  ASTOR  PLACE 


Copyright, 
By  James  William  Kimball,. 


PREFACE. 


The   candidate   for   the    Christian    Ministry   will 
naturally  take  counsel  with  wise  Christian  parents," 
with  Christian  teachers,  with  fellow-pupils,  with  any 
of  his  friends  who  win  his  confidence  and  command 
his  respect. 

If  himself  thoughtful,  it  will  occur  to  him  that  in 
the  world  about  him  are  many  men  of  many  minds. 
In  estimating  the  worth  of  their  views  as  to  his  own 
thought  of  the  ministry,  it  may  occur  to  him  to 
consider  whether  he  finds  in  himself  any  approach 
to  what  seems  to  recommend  the  ministry  to  his 
adviser.  Thus  one  man  glories  in  the  pulpit  as 
a  stage  for  the  orator;  he  loves  the  honor  which 
comes  from  man.  Applause  is  sweet  to  him.  An- 
other loves  his  ease.  In  his  view  the  ministry  will 
foster  his  preference  for  mental  over  bodily  labor. 
Still  another  likes  to  lead  and  not  to  follow.  He 
likes  to  direct  and  sway  the  public  mind. 

To  his  first  disciples  Jesus  said,  "  Follow  me,  and 
I  will  make  you  fishers  of  men."  It  was  for  this  He 
called  them.  It  is  for  this  He  still  calls  men.  If 
candidates  for  the  Ministry  of  Salvation  are  not 
called  to  win  their  fellows  to  Christ ;  to  be  ambas- 
sadors for  Christ,  as  though  God  did  beseech  men 

3 


PREFACE. 

by  them,  praying  them  in  Christ's  stead,  "  Be  ye  recon- 
ciled to  God,"  it  does  not  appear  that  candidates  for 
something  quite  unlike  this  are  called  of  Jesus  to 
His  ministry.  St.  Paul  says :  "  Unto  me,  who  am 
less  than  the  least  of  all  saints,  is  this  grace  given, 
that  I  should  preach  among  the  Gentiles  the  un- 
searchable riches  of  Christ ;  and  to  make  all  men 
see  what  is  the  fellowship  of  the  mystery,"  [or  the 
mysterious  fellowship]  "  which  from  the  beginning  of 
the  world  hath  been  hid  in  God,  who  created  all 
things  by  Jesus  Christ." 

It  is  safe  for  the  man  who  has  not  an  insatiable 
desire  to  win  souls  to  Christ,  to  infer  that  he  is  not 
called  of  God  to  the  Ministry  of  Salvation.  Are  you 
doing  your  best  to  save  souls  now  ?  Said  the  angel 
to  Joseph  :  "  Mary  shall  bring  forth  a  son,  and  thou 
shalt  call  his  name  Jesus :  for  he  shall  save  his  peo- 
ple from  their  sins." 

Of  Jesus,  said  Isaiah  :  "  Surely  He  hath  borne  our 
griefs,  and  carried  our  sorrows." 

St.  Paul  says  to  his  pupils,  "  Bear  ye  one  another's 
burdens,  and  so  fulfil  the  law  of  Christ." 

Candidates  for  the  Christian  Ministry,  consider 
Jesus'  question :  "  Are  ye  able  to  drink  of  the  cup 
that  I  shall  drink  of,  and  to  be  baptized  with  the 
baptism  that  I  am  baptized  with  ?  "  "  Whosoever  he 
be  of  you  that  forsaketh  not  all  that  he  hath,  he  can- 
not be  my  disciple."  j.  w.  k., 

21  Somerset  Street,  Boston. 


CONTENTS. 


Page 

I.  The  Christian  Ministry 7 

11.  Is  THE  Religious  Want  of  thf  Age  Met?      .  25 

III.  Why  Preachihg  Fails 43 

IV.  Religious  Conversation 72 

V.  Self-Possession 80 

VI.  Ministerial  Culture 86 

VII.  I  Will .100 

VIII.  The  Ministry  of  Salvation        ....  104 

IX.  Tract-Preaching 115 

X.  A  Successful  Ministry 121 

XI.  Hinderances  to  Progress       ....  160 

XII.  Faith 164 

XIII.  How  TO  Begin  Life 167 

XIV.  Deference  or  Love 170 

XV.  What  Can  I  Do  ? 176 

XVI.  Questionings 180 

XVII.  The  Highest  Christian  Life  ....  184 

XVIII.  Power  of  the  Life  in  Christ    ....  187 

XIX.  Holiness 191 

XX.  Signs  of  the  Times 202 

XXI.  The  Secret  of  Blessedness    ....  211 

XXII.  Prayer-Meetings 215 

XXIII.  Christ  Here  and  Now 218 

XXIV.  Is  God  Good? 221 

XXV.  Am  I  A  Christian? 224 

XXVI.  Despising  our  Privilege 230 

XXVII.  How  to  be  Saved 233 

XXVIII.  The  Indwelling  Comforter        ....  237 

XXIX.  Receiving  Christ 242 

XXX.  Lay  Work  a  Bounden  Duty        ....  245 
XXXI.  What  Christ  Asks  of  a  Layman   .        .        .  248 
XXXII.  A  Protest  against  a  Bugbear  ....  253 
XXXIII.  Business  Life  Illustrated  in  that  of  a  Dry- 
Goods  Jobber 257 

5 


^MiM^t^^f^^^^ 


THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY. 


I  ESTEEM  the  office  of  the  Christian  Ministry 
to  be  the  most  honorable,  the  most  exahed,  and, 
under  favoring  circumstances,  the  most  enviable  on 
earth.  Its  work  is  to  unite  earth  to  heaven,  man  to 
God.  No  sane  and  Christian  man,  therefore,  can 
contemplate  its  functions  without  the  most  sincere 
and  earnest  solicitude  that  its  conditions  of  useful- 
ness and  happiness  should  be  thoroughly  under- 
stood. 

Candidates  for  this  ministry  come  from  an  endless 
variety  of  surroundings,  prompted  by  not  less  various 
and  divers  motives  and  impulses.  Some  are  per- 
suaded "by  the  mercies  of  God,"  some  "by  the 
meekness  and  gentleness  of  Christ,"  to  present  their 
bodies  a  living  sacrifice,  holy,  acceptable  unto  God, 
ambassadors  for  Christ,  to  persuade  men  to  be 
reconciled  to  God.  Some  are  persuaded  by  their 
discovered  facility  in  thinking,  in  speaking,  and  in 
winning  men  to  oneness  of  thought  and  feeling  with 


8  THE   CHRISTIAN   MINISTRY. 

themselves.  The  honor  generally  accorded  to  elo- 
quent speakers,  and  the  social  position  assigned 
them,  has  a  strong  attraction  for  not  a  few.  There 
are  many  who  have  no  inclination  for  secular  busi- 
ness, who  are  conscious  of  neither  genius  nor  apti- 
tude for  money-making,  to  whom  the  possibility  of 
earning  a  livelihood  in  connection  with  mental  culti- 
vation, and  the  amassing  of  stores  of  learning,  is 
very  inviting.  Again  there  are  those  who,  wherever 
they  are,  aspire  to  be  leaders,  and  are  intolerant  of 
being  led ;  men  who  like  to  have  their  own  way  in 
everything,  who  think  they  see  in  the  Christian  Min- 
istry free  scope  for  their  aspirations. 

Those  who  are  looking  to  the  ministry  under  such 
promptings,  would  do  well  to  heed  the  history  of 
Korah,  Dathan,  and  Abiram,  whose  ambitious  and 
self-seeking  aspirations  for  the  priesthood  provoked 
the  indignation  of  God.  It  may  well  admit  of  serious 
question  if  it  is  safe  for  any  man  to  adventure  him- 
self among  the  temptations  of  the  ministry,  who  has 
not  been  fortified  at  every  point  by  the  diligent 
and  loving  study  of  the  Bible,  and  by  the  counsels 
and  Scriptural  instructions  of  godly  parents,  whose 
prayers  are  perpetually  wrapping  him  as  a  garment 
and  covering  him  with  shield  and  buckler. 

No  man  has  any  right  to  the  Christian  Ministry 
whose  soul  is  not  full  to  overflowing  with  love  to 
Christ.  It  is  the  spring  to  every  effort ;  it  is  the  key 
to  every  human  heart.  It  is  more  than  logic,  more 
than  rhetoric,  more  than  Latin,  Greek,  and  Hebrew. 


THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY.  9 

"  For  though  I  speak  with  the  tongues  of  men  and 
angels  and  have  not  this  divine  love,  I  am  become 
as  sounding  brass  or  a  tinkling  cymbal."  This  love 
of  Christ  does  not  disdain  the  aid  of  any  science ; 
but  it  subordinates  every  science  to  the  one  grand 
work  of  honoring  Christ. 

No  man  has  any  call  to  the  Christian  Ministry 
who  has  not  a  passion  for  saving  souls.  If  his  love 
to  Christ  lacks  this  seal  it  is  a  fatal  lack.  How 
dwelleth  the  love  of  God  in  that  man  whose  care  for 
the  souls  for  whom  Christ  died  is  overshadowed  by 
intellectual  ambition?  Who  dares  pretend  love  for 
Christ,  who  has  taken  the  pulpit  as  a  theatre  for  in- 
tellectual display  ?  or  as  the  post  of  greatest  honor  ? 
or  as  the  most  available  means  of  earning  a  live- 
lihood ? 

No  man  has  any  business  to  be  in  the  Christian 
Ministry  who  has  not  distinctly  and  unqualifiedly 
renounced  self  in  every  form.  It  was  well  said  by 
Dr.  Johnson,  when  urged  to  accept  a  pastoral  charge 
on  the  ground  that  the  remuneration  was  consider- 
able, and  the  duties  easy  :  "  No  man,  sir,  has  any 
right  to  make  those  duties  easy." 

If  any  man  has  a  call  to  the  Christian  Ministry  who 
has  little  or  no  vital  union  to  his  fellow-men  of  affec- 
tion, sympathy,  and  thorough  understanding  of  them, 
let  him,  if  he  can,  prove  it.  What !  a  man  take  upon 
himself  the  momentous  task  of  turning  to  the  Holy 
God  those  who  are  bound  hand  and  foot,  mind  and 
heart,  body  and  soul,  in  the  snares  of  the  devil .''  or 


10  THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

walking  in  all  the  illusions  and  vain  show  of  Vanity 
Fair!  —  a  man  who  has  no  hold  by  intimate  knowl- 
edge, profound  compassion,  tender  sympathy,  and 
heart-yearning — shall  such  a  man  offer  himself  as  a 
minister  of  God  to  the  souls  of  men  ?  Is  he  pre- 
pared to  compete  for  them  with  the  emissaries  of 
Satan  ?  Will  he  throw  down  the  gauntlet  to  prin- 
cipalities and  powers,  and  defy  the  ruleis  of  wicked- 
ness in  high  places  ? 

No  man  has  any  call  to  the  Christian  Ministry 
who  has  not  intelligently  and  with  all  his  heart 
received  the  Holy  Ghost ;  who  is  not  filled  with  the 
Spirit ;  conscious  of  His  presence  as  of  the  indwell- 
ing personal  friend  Jesus  declared  He  should  be ; 
conscious,  too,  of  His  fulfilling  to  himself  the  prom- 
ise to  "  show  him  the  things  of  God  and  of  Christ, 
and  to  lead  him  unto  all  truth." 

No  man  has  any  call  to  the  ministry  of  salvation  who 
does  not  rely  upon  the  Word  of  God  as  the  sword  of 
the  Spirit;  who  does  not  love  it  far  more  than  all 
riches;  to  whom  it  is  not  far  "sweeter  than  honey 
and  the  honeycomb";  who  cannot  say  with  entire 
truth,  "  My  soul  breaketh  for  the  longing  it  hath 
unto  thy  judgments  at  all  times."  •  No  man  is  fit  to 
be  in  the  Christian  Ministry  whose  natural  cowardice 
is  not  vanquished  by  the  indwelling  of  the  Holy 
Ghost ;  who  fears  the  face  of  man.  Let  me  not  be 
misunderstood.  Burke  said  well,  "  No  man  who 
has  not  respect  enough  for  his  audience  sometimes 
to  tremble  before  them,  will  ever  make  a  true  orator. 


THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY.  II 

There  is  no  want  of  brute  insensibility;  there  are 
men  enough  in  and  out  of  the  ministry,  who  neither 
fear  God  nor  regard  man.  These  ought  not  to  be 
mistaken  for  models  of  courage  ;  nor  is  it  likely  that 
they  often  will  be,  for  their  stupendous  self-conceit 
is  known  and  read  of  all  men.  But  there  is  a  fear 
of  man  engendered  by  pitiful  concern  to  please  man 
rather  than  God  ;  to  please  man,  rather  than  to 
benefit  him.  The  man  whose  call  to  the  Christian 
Ministry  is  unequivocally  of  God,  is  lifted  above 
such  fear. 

It  may  well  be  doubted  if  many  men  are  called  to 
the  Christian  Ministry  whose  gift  is  only  for  theo- 
logical disquisition.  It  is  just  here  that  ministerial 
insensibility  to  the  changes  which  have  been  going 
on  among  men  becomes  painfully  apparent.  When 
I  was  a  boy  men  bought  and  sold  merchandise  in  a 
leisurely  way,  with  grave  and  courtly  mien,  not  unbe- 
coming Abraham,  "  sitting  in  the  door  of  his  tent," 
or  of  "Jacob,  leaning  upon  the  top  of  his  staff." 
Every  movement  was  moderate,  and  the  days  were 
long,  because  the  hours  were  more  than  enough  to 
contain  all  that  was  to  be  done  in  them.  The  men 
really  driven  by  their  work  were  very  few  in  number. 
It  cost  but  little  to  live,  and  that  little  was  not  diffi- 
cult of  acquisition.  With  the  increase  of  our  popula- 
tion there  has  come  increased  labor,  greatly  increased 
expenses,  and  diminished  remuneration.  This  ne- 
cessitates not  only  increased  diligence,  but  also 
greater  executive  ability;  and  the  powers  of  all  the 


12  THE    CHRISTIAN     MINISTRY. 

business  community  are  now  taxed  to  the  utmost. 
The  current  of  life  runs  fast ;  the  march  of  common 
Hfe  does  not  keep  time  with  the  measured  movement 
and  rounded  periods  of  mere  scholarly  writing. 

Men  disciplined  and  developed  by  the  pressure  of 
business  life,  every  nerve  keye"d  up  to  the  greatest 
tension,  every  capacity  to  do  and  to  suffer  developed 
to  the  full  by  ceaseless  competition  and  frequent 
collision  with  the  sharpest,  shrewdest,  most  untiring 
of  their  fellows,  cannot  rationally  be  expected  to 
come  into  the  Lord's  house  on  Sabbath  morning  and 
be  interested,  converted,  edified,  and  sanctified  by 
essays,  treatises,  or  theological  disquisitions  wherein 
it  is  attempted  to  be  shown  under  four  heads  and  six 
inferences  that  the  way  of  transgressors  is  hard ; 
that  sin  is  evil ;  that  holiness  is  good,  and  religion 
rational. 

It  has  come  about  that  a  successful  and  happy 
ministry  is  rather  the  exception  than  the  rule.  Now 
why  is  this  ?  May  not  the  answer  be,  Because  the 
candidate  does  not  honor  as  he  might  and  ought, 
God's  two  commands :  "  Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord 
thy  God  with  all  thy  heart,  soul,  mind,  and  strength, 
and  thy  neighbor  as  thyself .''  "  He  does  not  truly, 
heartily,  and  entirely,  "  Seek  first  the  Kingdom  of 
God  and  His  righteousness,"  for  himself  and  for 
others.  In  other  words,  the  main  hindrance  is  the 
want  of  piety. 

There  are  many  theories  of  preaching,  some  better 
than  others  ;  but  the  vital  principle,  superior  to  all 


THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY.  T3 

theories,  is  condensed  by  Jude  into  a  few  lines : 
"  But  ye,  beloved,  building  up  yourselves  on  your 
most  holy  faith,  praying  in  the  Holy  Ghost,  keep 
yourselves  in  the  love  of  God."  A  vigorous  growing 
piety  towards  God  and  man  opens  the  way  to  cer- 
tain success  in  the  ministry,  and  nothing  else  will. 

The  man  who  is  filled  with  the  Spirit,  led  by  the 
Spirit,  taught  by  the  Spirit,  will  certainly  overcome 
his  natural  indolence,  temper,  pride,  vanity,  ambi- 
tion, and  covetousness.  Preferring  truth  to  self,  and 
the  will  of  God  to  his  own  will,  he  will  certainly  find 
the  truth,  and  his  true  sphere ;  for  God  is  faithful, 
and  He  has  promised,  "Ask  and  ye  shall  receive." 
"Whatsoever  ye  shall  ask  in  my  name,  that  will  I 
do,  that  the  Father  may  be  glorified  in  the  Son." 
"  The  Comforter,  who  is  the  Holy  Ghost,  whom  the 
Father  will  send  in  my  name.  He  shall  teach  you  all 
things,  and  guide  you  into  all  truth." 

It  may  be  true  that  one  minister  would  have  suc- 
ceeded better  than  he  has,  if  his  education  had  been 
more  thorough,  his  temper  more  even,  his  manners 
more  conciliating,  or  his  church  members  more  ac- 
tive, or  more  liberal ;  but  he  who  seeks  the  reasons 
of  failure  in  the  ministry  in  any  of  these,  assuredly 
does  not  search  out  the  ultimate  cause.  In  mercy 
to  his  minister's  own  soul,  God  has  placed  the  ele- 
ment of  success  where  it  can  be  reached  by  all 
whom  He  has  called  to  it,  the  learned  and  the 
unlearned,  the  refined  and  the  rude,  the  schoolman 
and  the  self-taught :  //  is  in  the  power  of  godliness. 


14  THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

Look  over  the  catalogue  of  the  ministers  of  your 
acquaintance  :  do  you  find  that  the  man  of  most 
learning,  genius,  or  taste ;  the  greatest  mathema- 
tician, logician,  or  rhetorician,  is  invariably  or  gen- 
erally the  most  successful  in  his  ministry  ?  Are 
there  not  many  instances  of  success  among  those 
who  are  palpably  deficient  in  many  of  these  particu- 
lars ?  So  many  that  some  have  not  been  slow  to 
draw  the  most  mistaken  inference,  that  learning  is 
necessarily  a  hindrance  to  godliness,  and  to  an  effi- 
cient ministry. 

The  simple  truth  of  the  matter  is,  God  has  given 
to  each  man  severally,  talents  as  He  will  ;  to  one 
logic,  to  another  rhetoric,  imagination,  language, 
wit,  pathos,  originality,  whatever  characterizes  the 
individual,  and  with  these  gifts,  the  command,  "  Oc- 
cupy till  I  come."  Each  man  who  is  willing  to  pre- 
fer the  Divine  order  to  all  human  theories,  can  and 
should  occupy  his  talents  to  the  very  best  purpose, 
and  each  one  is  capable  of  distinguished  success,  as 
God  estimates  success. 

Admit  that  God  has  given  to  a  few  individuals  the 
ability  to  instruct  and  edify  the  Church  by  a  series 
of  original  and  labored  disquisitions  ;  is  this  a  com- 
mon gift  ?  Are  all  men,  or  the  larger  part  of  men, 
so  circumstanced  and  so  educated  as  to  take  the 
greatest  benefit  from  such  labors?  Assuredly  not; 
but  a  perverted  community  doting  of  questions  be- 
yond its  comprehension,  has  set  up  this  standard, 
and  of  late  years  called  upon  all  people  tQ  fall  down 


THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY.  1 5 

and  worship  this  image.  Let  us  hope  that  our  God 
is  able  to  deliver  us  from  the  furnace  of  contempt 
with  which  we  are  threatened  if  we  refuse  to  do 
homage  to  this  idol. 

The  simple  Word  of  God  is  grievously  neglected 
in  many  pulpits,  or  less  honored  than  it  might  be. 
The  extemporaneous  teaching  of  the  Holy  Ghost  is 
not  counted  on  as  it  should  be.  Neither  studious 
men,  nor  other  men,  expect  that  God  will  give  them 
in  the  hour  of  need  what  He  wishes  them  to  speak. 
Such  aid,  not  a  few  will  tell  you,  was  granted  to  the 
first  disciples  only  because  they  were  without  the 
means  of  education  now  enjoyed.  It  is  rare  to  find 
a  man  who  does  not  depend  more  upon  the  methods 
of  the  schools  than  upon  the  promptings  of  the  Com- 
forter. It  is  rare  to  find  the  man  who,  like  Payson, 
makes  you  feel  that  he  is  filled  with  faith  and  with  the 
Holy  Ghost,  that  he  is  swayed  and  controlled  by  the 
love  of  God;  that  he  is  inspired  from  Heaven.  If 
our  discourses  have  gained  in  what  is  called  literary 
ability,  have  they  not,  confessedly,  lost  in  unction  ? 
Where  is  the  minister  who  makes  you  feel  the  moment 
he  opens  his  lips,  truly  his  fellowship  is  with  the 
Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost  ?  Where  is  the  minister 
who  reads  the  Bible  as  if  he  were  inspired  ?  —  as  if  like 
Stephen  he  saw  the  Heavens  opened,  and  the  Son  of 
Man  standing  on  the  right  hand  of  God.  Where  is 
the  minister  prepared  to  go  into  the  pulpit  every  Sab- 
bath day  in  the  year  and  open  the  Scriptures,  as 
Christ  did  to  the  disciples  at  Emmaus,  with  a  fervor 


l6  THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

and  an  enthusiasm,  and  a  copiousness  of  illustration, 
supplied  by  an  habitual  spiritual-mindedness,  which 
never  for  an  instant  doubts,  never  has  reason  to 
doubt,  of  an  intensely  interested  and  an  immeasura- 
bly profited  congregation  ? 

Steam  and  electricity  are  often  referred  to,  as 
illustrating  our  enlarged  physical  resources ;  they 
ought  also  to  serve  as  reminders  of  the  accelerated 
movement  of  the  minds  and  hearts  around  us ;  and 
the  ministers  of  Christ  should  see  to  it  that  our 
spiritual  movements,  for  speed  and  for  power,  do 
not  suffer  by  comparison  with  the  greatest  marvels 
in  natural  science.  Let  the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost 
be  fully  recognized,  truly  valued,  and  cordially  in- 
voked, and  our  spiritual  progress  will  certainly 
transcend  all  other.  Let  the  minister  no  longer  go 
into  the  pulpit  sustaining  himself  with  the  feeling,  "I 
am  an  educated  minister,  this  is  my  pulpit,  these  are 
my  people,  and  bound  to  give  me  patient  audience ; " 
but  rather  let  him  feel,  "  I  am  anointed  of  God  to 
reach  these  hearts,  and  to  pour  His  word  upon  them, 
and  that  I  will  do :  I  long  to  impart  unto  them  some 
spiritual  gift,  and  as  God  is  true  and  gracious  to  all 
who  strive  to  serve  Him,  I  certainly  will  impart  to 
them  such  gifts  this  day."  Let  no  man  mistake 
unbelief  in  the  promises  of  God  for  a  becoming 
modesty. 

Most  certainly  it  is  true  that  all  things  are  not 
possible  to  any  one  man ;  therefore  it  belongs  to 
each  man  to  find  out  his  own  possibilities.     It  is 


THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY.  1/ 

precisely  because  of  remissness  at  this  point,  that 
many  men  are  disappointed,  disheartened,  and  un- 
happy in  their  ministry.  Oh,  how  many  men  lose 
their  time,  lose  their  patience,  lose  their  piety,  pull- 
ing at  the  wrong  string,  presuming  that  their  possi- 
bilities and  capabilities  were  all  marshalled  under 
the  forming  influence  of  the  customary  routine  in  the 
divinity  school.  Greek  and  Hebrew,  the  History  of 
the  Church,  the  several  systems  of  theology,  the  car- 
dinal doctrines,  and  the  customary  defences  of  the 
faith,  the  rules  of  logic  and  of  rhetoric,  they  are 
familiar  with  them  all ;  they  have  heard  what  could 
be  said  by  many  and  able  professors  on  the  promi- 
nent points  in  the  several  departments  of  sacred 
science,  and  this,  it  appears  to  them,  is  undeniably 
due  preparation  for  the  ministry  of  salvation. 

Be  it  observed,  this  is  not  the  sweeping  statement 
that  all  men  fall  into  this  mistake ;  but  only  the  gen- 
eral proposition  ;  here  is  a  mistake  into  which  some 
men  are  liable  to  fall ;  a  mistake  into  which  some 
will  inevitably  fall,  if  not  duly  warned.  We  are  not 
to  be  understood  as  discourteously  intimating  that 
our  theological  teachers  have  failed  to  sound  the 
note  of  warning.  But  we  may,  without  discourtesy, 
affirm,  that  the  reluctance  of  man  to  admit  unwel- 
come truth  being  what  it  is,  the  reverberation  of 
that  note  from  without  the  halls  of  divinity  will  be 
useful. 

The  foundation  of  all  usefulness  and  happiness  in 
the  ministry  must   lie    in    a   conscious   power   and 


1 8  THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

delight  in  affecting  other  minds.  There  must  be 
in  every  effective  and  useful  minister  actual  supe- 
riority of  some  sort.  Men  will  not  long  endure, 
much  less  sustain,  any  man  whom  they  do  not 
respect.  Whence  it  follows  that  no  man  has  a  call 
to  the  ministry  who  has  not  some  actual  superiority ; 
some  power  beneficially  to  affect  other  minds.  But 
men  may  and  do  fail  in  the  ministry  who  have  actual 
superiority  and  power  to  affect  other  minds,  in  con- 
sequence of  not  knowing  wherein  their  strength  lies. 
It  is  not  that  they  have  not  ability,  but  that  they 
mistake  their  vocation.  Does  the  supposition  seem 
to  you  inadmissible  ?  It  should  not ;  for,  in  truth, 
there  are  many  Christian  men  who,  in  point  of  seek- 
ing Divine  guidance,  seem,  like  the  Ephesians,  not 
so  much  as  to  have  heard  whether  there  be  any  Holy 
Ghost.  It  is  not  their  habit  with  simple-hearted 
faith,  to  accept  the  assurance  that  the  Holy  Ghost 
dwells  with  them  and  in  them,  for  the  very  purpose 
of  guiding  them  into  all  truth.  Thence  their  mis- 
takes. 

Of  course  there  is  a  line  of  effort,  in  which  every 
man  who  is  called  of  God  to  be  His  minister  can 
excel.  What  that  line  is,  he  is  bound  to  know,  and 
may  learn  by  asking ;  for  God  says  explicitly,  "  If 
any  man  lack  wisdom,  let  him  ask  of  God,  who 
giveth  to  all  men  liberally,  and  upbraideth  not,  and 
it  shall  be  given  him." 

In  order  to  a  more  intelligent  survey  of  some  of 
the  prominent  distinctive  ways   of  working  in    the 


THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY.  I9 

ministry,  let  it  be  considered,  that  it  is  our  first  and 
paramount  concern  to  gain  a  perfectly  clear  concep- 
tion of  the  true  work  of  the  Christian  Ministry.  It 
is  safe  to  begin  with  God's  own  designation ;  it 
is  "the  ministry  of  reconciliation."  This  implies 
alienation.  It  is  certain  that  man  does  not  love 
and  obey  God.  The  aim  is  to  bring  man  to  love  and 
obey  Him ;  and  to  achieve  this  through  the  media- 
tion of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  This  is  the  work 
of  the  Christian  Ministry,  and  the  man  who  has  no 
passion  for  this,  has  no  call  to  the  ministry.  As  to 
the  manner  of  doing  this,  the  word  reconciliation 
shall  serve  us.  The  only  true  and  enduring  recon- 
ciliation, whether  of  man  to  man,  or  of  man  to 
God,  must  be  based  upon  the  abandonment  of 
wrong  by  the  party  in  the  wTong.  So  far  as  man 
is  alienated  from  God,  it  is  self-evident  that  the 
wrong  is  with  man :  "  Shall  not  the  Judge  of  all 
the  earth  do  right }  " 

The  work  of  the  Christian  Ministry  is  therefore 
to  bring:  man  right  toward  God  :  to  brine:  him  into 
perfect  harmony  with  God.  Now,  as  to  the  ways  of 
doing  this,  there  is  large  liberty ;  they  are  manifold. 
The  work  is  flexible  to  the  talents  of  the  workmen. 
The  work  is  large  enough  for  all ;  it  accommodates 
itself  to  all  who  are  workmen  needing  not  to  be 
ashamed.  It  does  not  demand  that  every  man  shall 
be  a  Paul  or  an  Apollos ;  a  Cephas  or  a  John ;  an 
Edwards  or  a  Whitefield ;  a  Chalmers  or  a  Rowland 
Hill ;  a  Doddridge  or  a  Spurgeon  ;  a  Wilberforce  or 


20  THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

a  Harlan  Page.  It  demands  only  that  every  man 
shall  be  a  man,  and  a  full  man,  and  his  own  man  ; 
and  not  a  feeble,  or  exaggerated  image  of  some 
other  man.  It  demands  that  a  man  shall  have  sense 
enough,  and  self-knowledge  enough  to  know  for 
what  the  Lord  made  him  ;  with  what  he  has  en- 
dowed him ;  by  what  he  can  exert  a  real  influence 
upon  other  men. 

In  reconciling  men  to  God,  Edwards  doubtless 
thought  his  forte  lay  in  elaborate  argument.  He 
would  prove  to  men  by  irresistible  logic  that  they 
were  wrong,  wicked,  weak,  and  despicable.  He 
would  prove  God  to  be  right,  just,  omnipotent,  and 
admirable.     And  he  did  that. 

Whitefield  would  not  undervalue  or  neglect  reason- 
ing; but  he  would  subordinate  this  to  the  great 
endeavor  to  carry  the  heart  captive  by  a  sudden  and 
irresistible  appeal  to  the  imagination  and  to  the  sen- 
sibilities. He  knew  that  he  could  do  that,  and  he 
did  it.  Doddridge  believed  that  he  could  unfold  the 
Holy  Scriptures  in  simple  exposition.  Spurgeon  de- 
pends upon  the  fervid  appeal  in  the  living  language 
of  every-day  life,  carried  home  by  the  persuasive 
influence  of  such  illustrations  as  belong  to  the  obser- 
vation of  the  million.  Wilberforce  could  elaborate 
practical  views  in  the  language  of  a  member  of  the 
English  parliament.  Harlan  Page  could  attract  and 
instruct  in  simple,  unpretending  conversation.  And 
each  of  these  excelled  in  the  service  of  Christ,  be- 
cause he  threw  himself  with  energy  and  heartiness 
into  his  own  line  of  effort. 


THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY.  21 

This  is  not  to  disparage,  nor  to  undervalue  the 
training  of  the  schools  ;  it  is  not  to  approve  the  mis- 
judgment,  indolence,  or  folly  of  those  who  would  fain 
forge  a  specious  palliation  of  their  criminal  neglect 
of  severe  study,  and  unsparing  mental  discipline. 
By  no  means  !  But  to  press  the  truth  that  God  has 
given  to  each  man  an  individuality,  which  rightly  un- 
derstood and  used  insures  for  his  power  to  do  good, 
the  largest  sphere  and  freest  scope ;  and  to  urge  that 
many  men,  because  of  not  discerning  this,  have  missed 
the  true  uses  of  the  Theological  School,  namely  to 
organize  and  marshal  most  effectively  each  man's 
entire  resources,  according  just  prominence  to  the 
most  effective. 

To  the  failure  to  discern  this  truth,  it  is  in  no 
small  degree  owing,  that  the  obligation  to  preach 
the  Gospel  to  every  creature  is  not  more  generally 
felt. 

Oh,  for  a  love  of  Christ,  and  a  labor  for  Christ 
commensurate  with  the  increased  activity  of  the  secu- 
lar world !  A  power  of  appeal  not  to  be  resisted 
even  by  those  whose  enterprise  girdles  the  globe,  and 
whose  energy  emulates  the  lightning  in  its  passage 
through  the  sea.  Surely  no  one  can  doubt  that  the 
accelerated  movement  in  the  secular  world  demands 
imperatively  a  much  greater  vivacity  in  the  religious 
world  ;  an  alertness,  vigor,  and  energy  in  the  pulpit ; 
and  that  living  contact  with  the  minds  about  us  which 
is  realized  in  earnest,  animated,  persuasive  conver- 
sation ;  a  style  of  address,  not  in  violation  of,  but  in 


22  THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

perfect  accordance  and  harmony  with  the  respective 
endowments  of  each  preacher. 

To  all  this,  I  am  quite  aware  that  some  will  be 
saying,  "  Say  what  you  will  about  the  possibility,  and 
even  facility  for  some,  it  remains  true,  and  probably 
ever  will,  that  for  not  a  few,  it  is  by  no  means  easy 
to  talk  about  religion." 

To  be  sure  it  is  so.  Religion,  as  you  mean  it,  is 
little  more  than  an  assemblage  of  crude  ideas  of  the 
God  who  made  us  ;  of  the  interest  He  may  possibly 
take  in  us ;  of  the  government  He  may  have  over  us  ; 
and,  on  our  part,  what  we  may,  or  must  do  about  it. 
It  is  not  easy  to  interest  men  in  crude  ideas  ;  not 
even  in  well-considered  abstractions.  Very  difficult, 
indeed,  it  is  to  render  such  matters  interesting  even 
to  the  well-instructed.  By  all  means  let  us  drop 
them,  and  talk  of  Jesus  ;  of  what  he  has  done,  and 
of  what  he  is  willing  now  to  do  for  us,  and  for  the 
needy  all  about  us.  For  a  simple,  unpretending, 
loving  follower  of  Jesus,  it  surely  is  not  difficult  to 
talk  about  his  Lord ;  not  if  he  loves  ardently  and 
follows  closely.  Old  habits  of  thought,  feeling  and 
talking,  are  to  be  surmounted  of  course.  Each  day's 
progress  will  smooth  the  way  to  greater  progress  on 
the  morrow  ;  and  ere  long  he  will  be  shouting  with 
David,  "  How  precious,  also,  are  thy  thoughts  unto 
me,  O  God  !  How  great  is  the  sum  of  them  !  "  It 
is  not  difficult  to  listen  to  such  a  preacher.  On  the 
contrary,  every  ear  is  attentive ;  and  every  spiritual 
pastor  is  eager  to  promote  the  utterances  of  young 


THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY.  23 

converts.  Why.?  Is  it  that  they  know  more  than 
older  disciples  .''  No  ;  but  it  is  that  the  heart  of  the 
newly  converted  has  been  reached  and  changed  ;  and 
that  in  the  freshness  of  his  young  love  his  heart  pro- 
claims the  Saviour  and  the  Prince  he  has  found. 
The  love  of  such  an  one  is  contagious.  It  is  no 
theologic  dogma,  no  system  of  philosophy  he  is  eager 
to  introduce,  it  is  the  friendship  of  Jesus,  which  has 
become  so  much  to  himself,  that  he  must  and  will 
share  it  with  others. 

To  preach,  then,  is  to  get  the  ear,  the  understand- 
ing, and  the  heart  for  Jesus.  With  reason  we  are 
wont  to  say,  "  It  is  to  speak  for  Jesus ; ''  but  we  can- 
not forget  that  it  is  not  the  tongue  alone  which 
speaks  for  Jesus.  Every  one  feels  the  eloquence  of 
the  unlettered  woman,  who  could  give  no  connected 
account  of  what  the  Lord  had  done  for  her ;  about  to 
be  declined  by  those  to  whom  she  could  not  make 
herself  intelligible,  nor  interpret  the  transformation 
which  she  alleged  to  have  taken  place,  she  broke  out 
in  the  simple  declaration,  "I  cannot  talk  for  Him, 
but  I  can  die  for  Him."  To  die  daily  unto  ambition, 
pride,  vanity,  self-seeking,  sin  in  any  and  every  form, 
in  order  to  be  every  whit  alive  to  Jesus  and  His 
cause ;  this  is  to  preach  Him  to  every  creature.  To 
pray  ceaselessly,  inexorably,  to  be  filled  with  the 
knowledge  of  His  will  in  all  wisdom  and  spiritual 
understanding,  that  you  may  walk  worthy  of  the 
Lord  unto  all  pleasing,  that  you  may  be  fruitful  in 
every   good  work,   increasing   in  the  knowledge   of 


24  THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

God,  strengthened  with  all  might  according  to  His 
glorious  power,  unto  all  patience  and  long-suffering 
with  joyfulness,  giving  thanks  unto  the  Father  who 
has  made  you  meet  to  be  a  partaker  of  the  inherit- 
ance of  the  saints  of  light,  who  hath  delivered  you 
from  the  power  of  darkness,  and  hath  translated  you 
into  the  kingdom  of  his  dear  son;  this  is  to  have  ac- 
cepted a  full  salvation,  and  a  present  heaven,  dwell- 
ing in  which,  you  cannot  but  know  both  the  power 
and  the  rest  of  faith ;  in  virtue  of  which  you  have 
great  freedom  to  lose  all  undue  concern  about  your- 
self, and  to  be  absorbed  in  undistracted  devotion  to 
Jesus  and  His  cause. 


IL 


IS   THE   RELIGIOUS   WANT   OF   THE 
AGE   MET? 

TO  answer  this  question  intelligently,  we  must 
first  glance  at  the  characteristics  of  the  age. 
It  is  an  age  of  remarkable  activity.  There  have 
been  industrious  men  in  other  days  ;  there  have  been 
nations  of  whom  it  might  be  truly  said,  They  were 
an  industrious  people,  they  lost  no  time  in  idleness : 
but  their  rate  of  speed  was  low.  Such  a  people 
could  hardly  be  deemed  enterprising.  They  might 
continue  uncomplainingly  in  their  accustomed  round 
of  labors,  but  would  lack  impulse  to  attempt  any- 
thing new.  Circumstances  did  not  compel  them  to 
unwonted  efforts,  and  their  capabilities  lay  dormant. 
The  world  was  wide,  the  population  comparatively 
sparse,  and  the  means  of  subsistence  not  difficult  of 
attainment. 

Our  age  is  very  unlike  to  that.  People  begin  to 
crowd  one  another.  There  is  competition.  The 
more  active  and  ingenious  will  have  the  advantage ; 
they  do  have  the  advantage  ;  and  this  fact  is  a  con- 


26  THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

stant  stimulus.  It  has  been  operating  for  thirty 
years  past  with  ever- in  creasing  power.  We  seem 
to  be  approaching  a  cHmax,  a  point  beyond  which 
flesh  and  blood  cannot  go.  The  enterprise  of  the 
more  active  spirits  of  our  day  is  astounding ;  we 
begin  to  ask,  Will  they  stop  at  anything  ?  What 
will  they  not  undertake  ?  There  are  a  great  many 
unsuccessful  attempts  ;  but  these  are  not  necessarily 
observed,  they  pass  quietly  into  obscurity,  while  we 
hasten  to  observe  the  successes,  which  are  wonder- 
ful, and  so  numerous  as  to  keep  us  ever  on  tiptoe, 
looking  for  new  wonders.  Having  seen  the  railways, 
the  magnetic  telegraph,  and  Hoe's  press,  in  full 
operation,  and  having  been  brought  to  accept  these 
as  a  common  measure  of  time  and  motion,  we  find 
ourselves  indisposed  for  older  usages.  We  find  our 
age  an  age  of  daring  and  of  doing.  We  are  ready  to 
discard  the  word  impossible  from  our  vocabulary ;  we 
deny  that  anything  is  the  less  probable  because  of 
being  unprecedented.  For  doing  new  things  we 
look  about  for  new  means,  being  full  charged  with 
the  belief  that  for  all  worthy  or  desirable  ends 
there  must  be  adequate  and  available  means.  In 
this  regard,  it  is  an  age  of  unprecedented  faith,  of 
expectation  of  success ;  and  we  all  know  the  natural 
and  necessary  influence  of  such  an  expectation. 
Sanguine  expectation  lights  up  the  fires  of  genius  ; 
invention  is  quickened  for  the  attainment  of  the 
highest  speed  and  the  greatest  momentum.  In  no 
former  age  has  there  been  anything  to  compare  in 


IS    THE    RELIGIOUS    WANT    MET  ?  2/ 

rapidity  and  power  of  movement  with  the  every-day 
achievements  of  this  age.  The  relation  of  books  to 
men,  and  the-  sphere  assigned  to  books,  are  materi- 
ally modified  by  the  characteristics  of  the  age. 
Books,  as  books,  are  no  longer  a  charm  to  con- 
jure with.  The  few  really  superior  books  have  a 
wider  and  greater  influence  than  ever  before ;  while 
the  great  mass  of  common  books  have  less,  and  pass 
more  easily  into  oblivion.  Good  books  may  and 
must  help  us ;  but  books  cannot  make  us  men  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  and  a  power  in  it.  A  thorough 
knowledge  of  the  world  within  us,  as  it  stands  re- 
lated to  the  world  without  us,  is  something  quite 
different  from  mere  book-knowledge.  This  is  an  ele- 
ment of  influence  not  only  not  confined  to  the  book- 
men, but  often  possessed  in  a  transcendent  degree 
by  those  whose  devotion  to  books  is  altogether  sub- 
ordinate to  other  avocations.  Our  common-school 
education  may  be  said  to  bring  the  entire  people 
upon  a  common  plane.  We  are  no  longer  the 
esoteric  and  the  exoteric ;  we  understand  our  rights 
in  the  common  fund  of  sense  and  truth  very  well. 
We  are  not  very  patient  with  those  who  affect  to 
know  better  than  ourselves  what  we  \vant  and  what 
we  ought  to  desire.  Most  men  are  exceedingly 
in  earnest,  and  determined  to  be  heard  in  their  own 
cause,  and  well  able  to  make  themselves  under- 
stood. Scribes  and  Pharisees  compassing  sea  and 
land  to  make  one  proselyte  are  a  good  and  bad 
type  of  our  activity  in  the  pursuit  of  our  own  ends. 


28  THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY, 

Innumerable  and  infinitely  varied  are  the  shifts 
employed  to  secure  attention,  to  effect  the  sale  of 
merchandise,  and  to  increase  income.  Nor  are  the 
learned  professions  much  behind  the  men  of  mer- 
chandise. The  contest  of  life  thickens.  Competi- 
tion for  the  fruits  of  labor  waxes  continually  more 
fierce.  Mother  Earth  is  too  moderate  in  her  labors ; 
the  ranks  of  the  producers  suffer  from  desertion  ; 
the  plough  is  forsaken ;  the  patient  ox  is  con- 
temned; silence,  seclusion,  and  meditation  are  a 
memory  of  the  past.  The  world's  axis  is  changed ; 
there  is  more  heat  in  the  North.  The  world  has 
advanced,  in  our  age,  from  a  speed  of  five  miles  an 
hour,  to  twenty  or  thirty,  or  more. 

Whatever  may  be  thought  of  the  advantages  and 
disadvantages  accruing  from  these  movements,  there 
can  be  no  question  of  the  fact  that  they  have  greatly 
affected  the  position  and  the  relations  of  speakers 
and  hearers.  The  million  have  been  driven  to  do 
so  much  for  themselves,  that  they  are  in  no  little 
danger  of  jumping  to  the  conclusion  that  they  no 
longer  need  teachers  of  religion.  A  conclusion  so 
fraught  with  mischief  to  the  race  will  not  be  arrested 
by  a  pertinacious  adhesion  to  modes  of  preaching 
which  men  under  the  old-time  training  could  be 
made  to  endure,  but  which  latter-day  contrasts  have 
rendered  intolerable. 

It  is  just  here,  if  anywhere,  that  a  special  back- 
wardness on  the  part  of  the  clergy  to  meet  the  relig- 
ious  wants   of   the   age   may,    without   injustice   or 


IS   THE    RELIGIOUS    WANT    MET  ?  29 

unkindness,  be  alleged.  It  comes  about  very  natu- 
rally ;  the  training  of  the  clergy  is  not  in  harmony 
with  the  exigencies  of  the  position  they  are  intended 
to  occupy.  The  endeavors  of  the  preparatory  schools 
are  not  to  be  depreciated.  It  is  scarcely  possible  to 
say  too  much  of  the  fundamental  importance  of 
thoroughness  and  of  minute  accuracy  in  the  rudi- 
ments of  learning.  But  that  extreme  zeal  in  this 
behalf  has  produced  an  unnatural  divorce  of  the  prac- 
tical from  the  critical,  it  is  vain  to  deny.  The  devo- 
tion to  the  latter,  which  is  inaugurated  in  the  pre- 
paratory school,  is  by  the  college  inflamed  to  the 
utmost,  and  the  young  man  reaches  his  climax  when 
he  receives  the  appointment  of  valedictorian ;  that  is 
his  end;  he  reaches  it,  and  we  may  say  it  is  the 
death  of  him.  He  may,  indeed,  enter  the  theologi- 
cal seminary,  industriously  resolved  on  more  of  the 
same  supremacy ;  but,  in  most  instances,  the  great 
practical  ends  of  a  Christ-like  life  of  doing  good 
have  been  already  lost  from  his  view,  and  the  ways 
and  means  by  which  alone  such  ends  can  be  reached 
have  become  offensive  to  him.  The  student,  as  he 
delights  in  calling  himself,  has  become  greatly  more 
interested  in  knowledge  than  in  the  people  for  whom 
he  is  to  use  his  knowledge.  A  certain  unknown  God, 
an  idol,  in  short,  quite  unsuspected,  whose  name  is 
Critical  Dignity,  is  installed  in  his  heart  in  the  place 
of  the  Son  of  God.  And  the  man  endures  the  trials 
of  his  ministerial  life  under  the  mistaken  impression 
that  he  is  a  martyr  for  Christ.     He  compels  himself 


30  THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

to  be  satisfied  with  a  measure  of  attention  to  his 
utterances,  which  would  content  no  sane  and  sen- 
sible man  in  any  other  department  of  teaching.  He 
will  tell  you  that  it  is  one  of  the  inevitable  infelicities 
of  his  vocation,  that  to  nothing  are  men  such  unwill- 
ing listeners  as  to  religious  truth ;  than  which  noth- 
ing can  be  more  untrue ;  for  to  nothing  are  men  so 
prepared  to  listen  as  to  religious  truth,  properly  pre- 
sented. 

In  order  to  a  more  generally  happy  and  successful 
prosecution  of  the  duties  of  a  minister  of  Christ,  a 
preliminary  fact  requires  to  be  considered.  That 
a  man  is  found  or  finds  himself  in  any  calling  is  no 
evidence  whatever  that  he  is  fitted  for  that  calling. 
This  is  just  as  true  of  the  ministry  as  of  any  other 
vocation.  Every  man-of-business  knows  this.  The 
clergy  seem  to  us  behind  the  age  in  being  astonish- 
ingly blind  to  it.  Men  of  business  know  that  only  a 
very  small  fraction  of  their  number  can  ever  attain 
eminent  success.  They  know,  that,  in  a  term  of 
twenty  years,  ninety-seven  men  in  a  hundred  fail. 
Here  and  there  one  develops  a  remarkable  talent 
for  the  specific  business  in  which  he  is  engaged. 
The  ninety-and-nine  discover  that  they  have  a  weary 
contest  to  maintain  with  manifold  contingencies  and 
combinations  which  no  foresight  can  preclude. 

The  application  of  this  general  truth  to  their  pro- 
fession the  clergy  are  backward  to  perceive.  The 
consequences  of  this  backwardness  are  very  hurtful 
to  their  interests.     Because  of  this,  we  have  an  in- 


IS   THE    RELIGIOUS    WANT    MET  ?  3 1 

definite  amount  of  puerile  and  undignified  complaint 
from  disappointed  men,  of  disingenuous  misrepre- 
sentation from  incompetent  men,  who  have  entered 
upon  labors  they  were  never  fitted  to  accomplish. 
Such  men  undertake  their  labors  in  ways  that  want 
and  must  want  the  Divine  sanction ;  and  they  are 
tempted  to  ward  off  a  just  verdict  of  unsuitableness 
and  of  incompetency  by  bringing  many  and  grievous 
charges  against  their  flocks.  "  A  mania  for  church- 
extending";  "a  hankering,  for  architectural  splen- 
dor "  ;  "or  for  discursive  and  satirical  preaching  "  ; 
"or  for  something  florid  or  profound":  these  and 
the  like  imputations  have  been  put  forward,  as  a 
screen,  by  many  an  unsuccessful  preacher,  who 
failed,  —  simply  failed,  —  not  in  selling  horns  or 
hides,  shirtings  or  sugars,  —  but  failed  to  recom- 
mend Christ  and  his  gospel,  —  failed  for  want  of 
head,  or  heart,  or  industry,  or  all  three. 

The  man  who  embarks  his  all  in  hardware,  drugs, 
or  law,  runs  the  risk  of  failure.  If  his  neighbor  can 
rise  earlier,  walk  faster,  talk  faster,  work  harder,  and 
hold  on  longer,  he  will  get  the  avails  that  might 
suffice  for  both.  This  unalterable  fact  every  busi- 
ness-man accepts. 

Do  you  inquire,  To  what  good  purpose  do  you 
thrust  the  possibility  of  failure  upon  the  attention  of 
the  candidate  for  the  ministry  ?  Would  you  utterly 
discourage  those  who  are  already  more  alive  to  the 
perils  of  their  undertaking  than  we  could  wish 
them  ? 


32  THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

We  answer,  It  is  no  kindness  to  encourage  men  to 
enter  a  ministry  whose  inexorable  requirements  and 
whose  incidental  possibilities  they  may  not  look  in 
the  face.  It  is  no  kindness  to  represent  to  them 
that  the  qualities  which  they  possess  ought  to  engage 
attention;  and  that  their  talents  will  command  re- 
spect, or  else  it  will  be  the  fault  of  the  people. 

Men  go  into  business  in  the  face  of  a  possibility  of 
failure  through  uncontrollable  circumstances  ;  not  in 
defiance  of  an  ascertainable,  insuperable  incompe- 
tency. They  toil  on,  accepting  adversity  with  such 
equanimity  as  God  gives  them,  so  long  as  they  are 
permitted  to  believe  that  their  misfortunes  are  not 
chargeable  upon  their  incapacity  or  self-indulgence. 
But  when  it  is  made  apparent  that  they  are  not  in 
their  proper  sphere,  they  think  it  no  shame  to  say  so, 
to  withdraw,  and  to  apply  their  energies  to  some- 
thing suited  to  their  tastes  and  capabilities.  And 
so  it  should  be  with  the  ministry ;  but  as  things  now 
are,  with  the  conception  of  the  ministry  now  enter- 
tained, pride  interposes  to  forbid  the  rectification  of 
the  most  serious  mistakes.  It  is  a  question  of  dig- 
nity and  of  scholarship ;  whereas  it  should  be  a 
question  of  love  to  God  and  man,  and  of  real  abil- 
ity and  conscious  power  to  bring  them  together,  — 
to  reconcile  man  to  God. 

Our  age  is  an  age  of  great  devotion  to  secular 
affairs,  —  of  men  who  are  great  in  the  conduct  of 
such  affairs,  —  in  every  department  in  life.  To 
counterbalance  this,  our  ministry  must  be  filled  with 


IS    THE    RELIGIOUS    WANT    MET  ?  33 

an  equally  earnest  devotion  to  God  and  salvation. 
In  real  ability  our  ministers  ought  to  be  not  a  whit 
behind.  But  ability  is  not  necessarily  scholarship ; 
though  it  may,  and  as  far  as  possible  should,  include 
that,  and  a  great  deal  more.  Let  it  be  fully  under- 
stood, once  for  all,  that  we  have  no  disparaging 
remark  to  make  of  scholarship;  a  man  must  be  fool- 
ish beyond  expression,  who  pretends  to  argue  that 
the  highest  schola,rship  is  less  than  a  most  important 
and  almost  indispensable  auxiliary  to  the  minister  of 
Christ.  All  our  concern  in  the  matter,  just  here,  is, 
that  it  shall  be  fully  understood  that  piety  and  real 
ability  make  the  minister  of  Christ,  and  not  scholar- 
ship ;  in  the  words  of  Augustine,  "  the  heart  makes 
the  minister ;  "  but  we  may  safely  assume  that  he 
meant  the  heart  of  a  really  able  man ;  otherwise  we 
can  accord  but  a  qualified  respect  to  this  remark. 

The  prevailing  impression  among  the  ministry 
appears  to  be,  that  the  man  who  cannot  write  "an 
able  doctrinal  discourse  "  is  but  an  inferior  man,  fit 
only  to  preach  in  an  inferior  place  ;  and  that  it  would 
be  a  great  gain  to  the  Church,  if  scholarship  were 
only  so  general  that  the  standard  of  the  universities 
could  be  applied,  and  only  Phi-Beta-Kappa  men 
allowed  to  enter  the  ministry.  No  doubt,  those  who 
incline  to  this  view  are  quite  honest,  and  not  un- 
kindly in  it.  But  those  who  think  this  grievously 
misunderstand  the  necessities  of  the  age  in  which  we 
live.  Reading  men  know  where  to  find  better  read- 
ing than  can  possibly  be  furnished  by  any  man  who 


34  THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

is  bound  to  write  two  sermons  weekly,  or  even  one 
sermon  a  week  ;  and  to  train  any  corps  of  young  men 
in  tiie  expectation  that  any  considerable  fraction  of 
them  will  be  able  to  win  and  to  maintain  a  com- 
manding influence  in  their  parishes  mainly  by  the 
weekly  production  of  learned  discourses  is  to  do 
them  the  greatest  injury,  by  cherishing  expectations 
which  never  can  be  realized.  Why  do  our  educated 
men  of  other  professions  so  seldom  and  so  reluc- 
tantly contribute  to  the  addresses  in  our  religious 
assemblies  ?  Precisely  because  they  understand  the 
difficulty  of  meeting  the  popular  expectation  which  is 
created  by  the  prevailing  theory  ;  a  theory  which 
demands  that  sermons,  and  not  only  that  sermons, 
but  also  that  all  religious  addresses,  should  be  chiefly 
characterized  as  learned,  acute,  scholastic  even.  An 
Irish  preacher  is  reported  in  an  Edinburgh  paper  as 
saying  lately,  that  "he  had  been  led  to  think  of  his 
own  preaching  and  of  that  of  his  brethren.  He  saw 
very  few  sermons  in  the  New  Testament  shaped 
after  the  forms  and  fashion  in  which  they  had  been 
accustomed  to  shape  theirs.  He  was  not  aware  of 
a  sermon  there,  in  which  they  had  a  little  motto 
selected,  upon  which  a  disquisition  upon  a  particular 
subject  was  hung.  The  sort  of  sermons  which  the 
people  in  his  locality  were  desirous  to  hear  were  ser- 
mons delivered  on  a  large  portion  of  the  Word  of 
God,  carrying  through  the  ideas  as  the  Spirit  of  God 
had  done."  And  it  is,  in  part  at  least,  because  of 
the   prevailing   disregard   of    this    most    reasonable 


IS    THE    RELIGIOUS    WANT    MET  ?  35 

desire,  that  parishes  so  soon  weary  of  their  minis- 
ters. 

It  need  not  discourage  ministers  to  accept  the  fact 
that  there  will  be  failures  in  the  ministry,  —  and  a 
great  many  failures  among  those  who  rely  for  their 
success  mainly  upon  the  weekly  production  of  learned 
disquisitions.  Discouragement  is  not  in  accepting  a 
fact  that  accords  with  all  just  theories  of  truth,  but 
in  adopting  a  theory  which  is  sure  to  be  invalidated 
by  the  almost  universal  experience  of  men  in,  as 
well  as  out  of,  the  ministry.  A  right-minded  minis- 
ter may  have  many  falls  in  struggling  up  his  Hill  of 
Difficulty;  but  the  Lord  will  lift  him  up,  and  will 
save  him  from  adding  to  the  temperate  grief  proper 
to  any  measure  of  shortcoming  the  intolerable 
poignancy  that  comes  of  cheating  by  false  pre- 
tences, —  of  assuming  to  do  what  he  knows  or 
should  know  that  he  cannot  do,  namely,  produce 
any  considerable  number  of  great  sermons. 

Let  it,  then,  be  frankly  owned,  that  men,  very 
good  men,  very  capable  men,  have  failed  in  the  min- 
istry. A.  failed,  because  he  did  not  study;  B., 
because  he  did  not  visit  his  people  ;  C,  because 
he  could  not  talk  ;  D.,  because  he  was  too  grave ; 
E.,  because  he  was  too  frivolous ;  F.  could  not,  or 
would  not,  control  his  temper;  G.  alienated  by 
exacting  more  than  he  received;  and  all  of  them 
because  of  not  having  what  Scougal  calls  "  the  life 
of  God  in  the  soul  of  man." 

It  is  not  worth  while  for  any  man  to  go  into  the 


36  THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

ministry  who  cannot  relish  the  Apostle's  invitation, 
running  thus  :  "  I  beseech  you,  therefore,  brethren, 
by  the  mercies  of  God,  that  ye  present  your  bodies  a 
living  sacrifice,  holy,  acceptable  unto  God,  which  is 
your  reasonable  service."  If  that  seem  not  reason- 
able, ay,  and  exceedingly  inviting  too,  better  let 
it  alone.  All  men  cannot  do  all  things.  Better 
raise  extraordinary  potatoes  than  hammer  out  insig- 
nificant ideas.  You  do  not  see  the  connection  t  you 
were  a  Phi-Beta-Kappa  man  in  college,  and  know 
that  you  can  write  better  than  many  a  man  in  a  met- 
ropolitan pulpit  ?  Very  likely ;  but  we  of  the  pew  go 
to  church  to  be  made  better  men,  and  not  by  fine 
writing,  but  by  significant  ideas,  which  may  come  in 
a  homely  garb,  so  they  be  only  pervaded  with  affec- 
tionate piety,  but  which  can  come  to  us  only  from 
one  who  has  laid  all  ambitious  self-seeking  on  the 
altar  of  God.  There  is  a  power  of  persuasion  in 
every  minister  who  follows  God  as  a  dear  child,  and 
who  walks  in  love,  as  Christ  loved  us,  which  the 
hardest  heart  cannot  long  resist,  —  which  will  win 
the  congregation,  however  an  individual  here  and 
there  may  be  able  to  harden  himself  against  it.  You 
think  that  the  great  power  of  the  pulpit  is  in  high 
doctrine,  presented  with  metaphysical  precision  and 
acuteness.  We  have  no  disparagement  to  offer  of 
your  doctrinal  knowledge,  nor  of  your  ability  to 
state  it  with  metaphysical  precision  and  hair-splitting 
acuteness.  But  we  know,  from  much  experience, 
that  there  is  a  divine  truth,  and  a  fervor  and  power 


IS    THE    RELIGIOUS    WANT    MET  ?  3/ 

in  imparting  it,  with  which  God  inspires  the  man 
who  is  wholly  devoted  to  Him,  in  comparison  with 
which  the  higher  achievements  of  the  man  who  lacks 
these  are  trumpery  and  rubbish.  Many,  mafiy  men 
have  failed  in  the  ministry,  are  failing  in  the  minis- 
try every  day,  because  their  principal  reliance  has 
been  upon  what  they  deem  their  thorough  mastery 
of  the  soundest  theories  of  doctrine  and  of  duty. 
They  were  confident  they  could  administer  to  minds 
and  hearts  diseased  the  certain  specific  laid  down  in 
the  book,  admeasured  to  the  twentieth  part  of  a 
scruple.  Confident  in  their  theoretical  acquisitions, 
they  could  not  comprehend  the  indispensable  neces- 
sity of  a  large  experience  in  actual  cases  of  mental 
malady.  And  for  the  want  of  such  experience,  it 
was  absolutely  impossible  that  they  should  be  en 
rapport  with  the  souls  they  honestly  desired  to  bene- 
fit. Can  you  heal  a  heart-ache  with  a  syllogism  ? 
There  is  no  dispensing  with  the  precept  and  prescrip- 
tion, "  Weep  with  those  that  weep  ! "  "  Be  of  the 
same  mind  one  toward  another  !  " 

Theories  of  doctrine  and  of  practice  are  not  with- 
out their  value ;  but  the  minister  who  is  merely  or 
chiefly  a  theorist,  whether  in  doctrine  or  in  meas- 
ures, is  an  adventurer ;  and  the  chances  against  him 
are  as  many  as  the  chances  against  the  precise  simi- 
larity of  any  two  cases  presented  to  his  attention,  — 
as  many  as  the  chances  against  the  education  of  any 
two  men  of  fifty  years  being  precisely  alike,  in  every 
particular  and  in  all  their  results.     The  soul's  prob- 


38  THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

lems  are  not  to  be  solved  by  theories.  Such  was  not 
the  practice  of  the  Great  Physician ;  "  Surely^  He 
hath  bor?ie  our  griefs  and  carried  our  so7'rowsr  Theo- 
ries shirk  that.  "/;z  all  their  affliction.  He  was 
afflicted;  in  His  love  and  in  His  pit}\  He  redeemed 
them.^^  And  precisely  in  this  way  his  ministers  are 
now  to  follow  up  his  practice.  Our  age  is  growing 
less  and  less  tolerant  of  formality,  —  less  and  less 
willing  to  accept  metaphysical  disquisition  in  place 
of  a  warm-hearted,  loving,  fervent  expansion  of  the 
Word  of  God,  recommended  to  the  understanding 
and  to  the  sensibility  by  lively  illustrations  of  spiritual 
truth,  derived  from  all  the  experience  of  life,  from  all 
observation,  from  all  analogies  in  the  natural  world, 
—  in  short,  from  every  manner  of  illumination,  from 
the  heavens  above,  from  the  earth  beneath,  and 
from  the  waters  which  are  under  the  earth.  God  is 
surely  everywhere,  and  hath  made  all  things,  and  all 
to  testify  of  Him  ;  and  the  innumerable  voices  all 
agree  together. 

And  when  this  is  both  understood  and  felt,  what 
rules  shall  be  given  to  guide  and  control  the  con- 
struction and  the  delivery  of  discourses  ?  Shall  we 
say,  The  people,  must  be  brought  back  to  the  old- 
time  endurance,  —  ay,  e?tdurance,  that  is  the  word,  — 
of  long-drawn,  laborious  ratiocinations,  wherein  the 
truth  is  diligently  pursued  for  its  own  sake,  with  an 
ultimate  reference,  indeed,  to  the  needs  and  uses  of 
the  hearer,  but  so  remote  as  rarely  to  be  noticed,  ex- 
cept by  that  very  small  fraction  of  any  customary 


IS   THE    RELIGIOUS    WANT    MET  ?  39 

congregation  who  may  chance  to  have  an  interest  in 
such  doings, — some  of  whom  watch  the  clergyman 
as  they  would  the  entomologist,  running  down  a  truth 
that  he  may  empale  it,  and  add  one  more  specimen 
to  his  well-ordered  collection  of  common  and  uncom- 
mon bugs  ?  Our  neighbors  fn  the  South  do  better 
than  this;  for  they  hunt  with  the  lasso,  and  never 
throw  the  noose  except  to  capture  something  which 
can  be  harnessed  to  the  wheels  of  common  life. 

No,  the  people  are  not  going  back  to  the  endur- 
ance of  any  such  misery.  They  have  found  out  that 
still-born  rhetoric  is  by  no  means  the  one  thing 
needful,  and  care  far  less  for  the  art  of  speech  than 
for  the  7iature  of  a  holy  heart.  They  want  a  man 
to  speak  less  of  what  he  believes  and  more  of  what 
he  feels.  The  expectation  of  bringing  the  people 
again  to  endure  prolonged  metaphysical  discrimina- 
tions, spun  out  of  commonplace  minds,  cobwebs  to 
cloak  their  own  nakedness  and  universal  inaptitude, 
if  indulged,  is  absurdly  indulged.  The  whole  Church 
is  sick  of  such  trifling.  She  knows  well  that  it  has 
made  her  most  unsavory  to  those  who  might  have 
found  their  way  into  the  temples  of  God,  or  kept 
their  places  there,  but  for  the  memory  of  an  im- 
mense amount  of  wearisome  readings  from  the  pulpit, 
—  too  often  a  vocabulary  of  words  seldom  or  ever 
found  out  of  sermons,  —  a  manner  of  speech  which, 
when  tried  by  the  sure  test  of  natural,  animated  con- 
versation, must  be  pronounced  absurd  and  abomina- 
ble.   It  is  a  wonder  of  wonders,  that,  in  spite  of  such 


40  THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

drawbacks,  an  individual  liere  and  there  has  been 
reclaimed  from  worldliness  to  the  love  and  service 
of  God. 

The  student-habits  of  the  clergy  most  naturally 
lead  them  to  prefer  the  formal  statement,  the  studied 
elaboration  of  ideas,  which  their  own  training  cannot 
but  render  facile  and  dear  to  them.  And  there  is 
here  and  there  a  man  who,  in  virtue  of  extraordi- 
nary genius,  can  infuse  new  life  into  worn-out 
phrases,  —  a  man  or  two  who  can  for  a  moment  or 
for  an  hour,  by  the  very  weight  and  excellence  of 
their  thoughts,  and  because  they  truly  and  deeply 
feel  them,  arrest  the  age,  and  challenge  and  secure 
attention,  in  spite  of  all  the  infelicities  of  an  anti- 
quated style  and  an  unearthly  delivery.  But  in  this 
age,  more  than  ever  before,  we  are  summoned  to  sur- 
render our  scholastic  preferences  and  esoteric  honors 
to  the  exigencies  of  the  million.  And  the  men  of 
this  generation  have,  without  much  conference,  come 
with  great  unanimity  to  the  determination  that  they 
will  not  long  endure,  either  in  or  out  of  the  pulpit, 
speakers  who  are  dull  and  unaffecting,  whether  from 
want  of  words,  ideas,  or  method  and  wisdom  in  the 
arrangement  of  them,  or  lack  of  sympathy,  —  and 
especially  that  they  will  not  endure  dull  declamation- 
from  the  pulpit. 

If  any  man  really  wish  to  know  how  he  is  preach- 
ing, let  him  imagine  himself  conversing  earnestly 
with  an  intelligent  and  highly  gifted,  but  uneducated 
man   or  woman,    in   his   own   parlor,    or   with    his 


IS    THE    RELIGIOUS    WANT    MET  ?  4I 

younger  children.  Would  any  but  an  idiot  keep  on 
talking,  when,  with  half  an  eye,  he  might  discern 
TEDIOUS,  wrought  by  himself,  upon  the  uncalloused 
sensibilities  of  his  hearers  ? 

How  long  ought  a  sermon  to  be  ?  As  long  as  you 
can  read  in  the  eyes  of  seven-eighths  of  your  audi- 
ence, Pray,  go  on.  If  you  cannot  read  that,  you  have 
mistaken  your  vocation  ;  you  were  never  called  to  the 
ministry.  The  secret  of  the  persuasive  power  of  our 
favorite  orators  is  in  their  constant  recognition  of 
the  ebb  and  flow  of  the  sensibilities  they  are  acting 
upon.  Their  speech  is,  in  effect,  an  actual  conver- 
sation, in  which  they  are  speaking  for  as  well  as  to 
the  audience  ;  and  the  interlocutors  are  made  almost 
as  palpably  such  as  at  the  "  Breakfast  Table  "  of 
our  dramatic  "Autocrat."  In  contrast  with  this  the 
dull  preacher,  falling  below  the  dignity  and  the  priv- 
ilege of  his  office,  addresses  himself,  not  to  living 
men,  but  to  an  imaginary  sensibility  to  abstract 
truth.  The  effect  of  this  is  obvious  and  inevitable ; 
it  converts  hearers  into  doubters  as  to  whether  in 
fact  there  be  any  such  thing  as  a  religion  worth 
recommending  or  possessing,  and  preachers  into 
complainers  of  the  people  as  indifferent  and  insensi- 
ble to  the  truth,  —  a  libel  which  ought  to  render 
them  liable  to  fine  and  punishment.  God's  truth, 
fairly  presented^  is  never  a  matter  of  indifference  or 
of  insensibility  to  an  intelligent,  nor  even  to  an  un- 
intelligent audience.  However  an  individual  here 
and  there  may  contrive  to  withdraw  himself  from 


42  THE   CHRISTIAN   MINISTRY. 

the  sphere  of  its  influence,  truth  can  no  more  lose 
her  power  than  the  sun  can  lose  his  heat. 

The  people,  under  the  quickening  influences  char- 
acteristic of  our  age,  are  awaking  to  the  conscious- 
ness, that  on  the  day  which  should  be  the  best  of  all 
the  week,  they  have  been  defrauded  of  their  right, 
in  having  solemn  dulness  palmed  upon  them,  in  place 
of  living,  earnest,  animated  truth.  Let  not  minis- 
ters, unwisely  overlooking  this  undeniable  fact,  defame 
the  people,  by  alleging  a  growing  facility  in  dissolv- 
ing the  pastoral  relation,  —  a  disregard  of  solemn 
contracts,  —  a  willingness  to  dismiss  excellent,  godly, 
and  devoted  men,  without  other  reason  than  the  in- 
disposition to  retain  them.  Be  it  known  to  all  such, 
that  capable  men  in  every  department  of  life  were 
never  in  such  request  as  at  this  very  hour ;  and 
never  since  the  world  began,  was  there  an  au- 
dience so  large  and  so  attentive  to  truth,  well 
wrought  and  fitted  to  its  purpose,  as  now. 


III. 

WHY    PREACHING   FAILS. 

EVERY  now  and  then  somebody  gives  us  the 
church-going  statistics,  from  which  it  appears 
that  the  people  do  not  go  universally,  nor  even  exten- 
sively. Indeed,  it  is  not  unfrequently  remarked : 
"  People  do  not  go  to  church  as  much  as  they  used 
to." 

"  How  do  you  account  for  it  ? "  we  asked  of  a  friend 
who  made  this  remark,  not  many  days  ago. 

"  Oh,  they  are  carried  elsewhere  by  the  isms  of  the 
day,  —  Adventism,  Mormonism,  Spiritualism,  and 
every  other  new  thing." 

But  delusions  are  not  peculiar  to  our  day ;  they 
have  always  existed  in  every  age.  Do  you  mean  to 
pronounce  the  people  more  foolish  now  than  they 
have  been  in  any  former  age  ? 

"Well,  no,  probably  not.  I  rather  think  there 
was  more  talent  in  the  pulpit,  in  former  days,  than 
there  is  now." 

If  by  talent  you  mean  learning,  and  skill  to  use  it, 
in  accordance  with  the  canons  of  logic  and  rhetoric 

43 


44  THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

taught  in  our  schools  of  learning,  we  can't  agree  with 
you.  The  evidence  all  points  the  other  way.  Our 
schools,  colleges,  and  seminaries  have  unquestion- 
ably made  long  strides  in  advance  of  the  attainments 
of  former  days.  The  scholarship  of  the  men  of  mark 
was  on  the  whole  never  so  comprehensive,  nor  so  ac- 
curate as  now.  So  far,  then,  as  scholarship  has  to  do 
with  filling  our  churches,  the  argument  is  in  favor  of 
our  cotemporaries.  And  yet  the  fact  is  hardly  to  be 
questioned,  — the  people  take  less  interest  in  church- 
going  than  formerly.  Can  there  be  any  doubt  that 
church  services  are  a  boon  to  man  ?  or  that  they  stand 
closely  related  to  his  best  intellectual,  moral,  and 
spiritual  condition  ?  Surely  not.  Is  the  tendency 
of  the  age  downward  ?  We  think  not.  Certainly 
the  history  of  the  past  fifty  years  is  a  history  of  un- 
paralleled progress.  And  no  doubt  the  church  at- 
tendance is  numerically  greater  now  than  at  any 
former  time ;  and  yet,  it  may  be  true,  and  prob- 
ably is  true,  that  the  interest  in  preaching  is  not 
commensurate  with  the  increase  of  interest  in  other 
departments  of  thought  and  instruction.  Here  is 
surely  an  evil,  and 

"  For  every  evil  under  the  sun, 
There  is  a  cure,  or  there  is  none ; 
If  there  be  one,  find  it ; 
If  there  be  none,  don't  mind  it." 

If  absence  from  church,  or  infrequent  and  uninter- 
ested attendance  on  church,  be  an  evil,  there  is  a 
remedy,  and  it  is  worth  while  to  find  it.     If  it  be 


WHY   PREACHING   FAILS.  45 

true,  as  is  very  often  affirmed,  that  the  loss  of  rever- 
ence is  so  general  with  us  as  to  have  become  a  na- 
tional characteristic ;  that  reverence  for  office,  for 
wisdom,  for  years,  for  man,  and  even  for  God,  has 
sadly  decreased  among  us,  then  it  is  plain  that  every 
philanthropist  should,  to  the  utmost  of  his  ability, 
encourage  the  public  reverence  and  worship  of  God ; 
the  obligation  is  recognized  in  churches  of  every 
name.  Moreover,  if  the  instruction  given  in  our 
churches  is  fitted  to  the  current  necessities  of  our 
day,  then  most  certainly  it  is  an  evil,  and  a  great 
evil,  that,  on  any  pretext,  the  people  fail  to  receive 
it.  But,  it  is  said,  by  both  clergy  and  laity,  less 
deference  is  given  to  the  instructions  of  the  pulpit 
than  formerly.  What  then  ?  Are  the  clergy  prepared 
to  abandon  the  ground  ?  Has  a  decree  of  destiny 
gone  forth  against  them  ? 

"  No,  but  the  people  have  lost  their  interest  in  re- 
ligious truth.  They  are  less  patient  of  any  demands 
upon  their  close  attention  and  serious  thought  than 
formerly." 

It  is  true  that  the  people  are  less  tolerant  of  indi- 
rection than  formerly.  Their  necessities  have  con- 
strained them  so  to  be.  But  it  may  well  be  doubted 
if  the  best  books  ever  had  more  readers,  the  best 
teachers  in  every  department  of  science  ever  had 
more  attentive  listeners,  than  now.  If,  then,  the 
pulpit  has  less  power  to  affect  the  public  than  for- 
merly, it  seems  inevitable  to  conclude  that  some- 
where there   is  a  fault,  or   an  oversight,  that  should 


46  THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

be  discovered  and  remedied.  It  is  surely  deroga- 
tory to  no  man,  to  no  class  of  men,  to  inquire  after 
errors.  "  Who  can  understand  his  errors  .'* "  is  a 
very  ancient  exclamation ;  and  as  timely  to-day  as 
when  first  uttered.  It  wells  up  like  a  natural  spring 
out  of  the  depths  of  conscious  imperfection  :  out  of 
the  consciousness  of  the  man  who  is  supremely  soli- 
citous to  be  a  perfect  man.  It  owns  that  the  best 
intentioned  man  may  be  misled;  that  he  may  be 
warped  by  unnoticed  influences,  by  agencies  which 
he  sees  no  reason  to  distrust,  which  have  the  almost 
inviolable  sanction  of  long  usage  and  of  tradition 
from  some  of  the  best  of  men.  Such  tradition  and 
usage  have  sometimes  made  it  heresy  even  to  glance 
at  elements  of  influence  freely  placed  at  our  dis- 
posal. 

Fully  recognizing  that  our  religious  teachers,  as  a 
body,  are  right-minded,  intelligent,  conscientious,  and 
intent  on  benefiting  their  fellow-men,  we  propose  to 
show  that  the  ordinary  hindrances  to  the  accom- 
plishment of  their  desire  are  much  increased  by  the 
network  of  circumstances  in  which  they  are  succes- 
sively enclosed. 

One  of  their  most  serious  impediments  to  the  larg- 
est influence  arises  from  an  exaggerated  estimate  of 
the  worth  of  unusual  knowledge.  How  far  will  a 
bright  boy  get  on  in  the  Latin  grammar,  think  you, 
before  he  will  begin  to  thank  God  that  he  is  not  as 
other  boys,  or  even  as  these  high-school  boys,  at  the 
other  end  of  the  building .?     Thenceforth,  the  summit 


WHY    PREACHING    FAILS.  47 

of  human  greatness,  and  of  human  excellence,  in  his 
view,  is  eminence  in  some  department  of  science 
which  will  distinguish  and  separate  him  from  —  not 
unite  him  to  —  his  fellow-men.  And  yet,  Latin 
grammar,  thoroughly  studied,  offers  a  preparation  for 
usefulness  in  any  department  of  life,  the  worth  of 
which  it  would  hardly  be  possible  to  exaggerate.  If 
the  boy  is  made  to  understand  that  the  exact  analy- 
sis of  a  dead  language  is  of  great  value  in  giving  him 
the  most  perfect  freedom  and  mastery  of  his  own 
living  language,  and  that  the  command  of  this  latter 
is  the  condition  of  deepest  sympathy  and  largest  in- 
fluence with  his  fellow-men,  and  especially  of  the 
largest  ability  to  do  them  good,  then  will  he  have  an 
antidote  to  that  poison  of  vanity  and  pedantry  which 
is  so  often  imbibed  in  the  very  milk  of  a  liberal  edu- 
cation. 

There  are  evils  incident  to  ever}-  profession  in  life, 
and  one  of  the  evils  incident  to  that  of  the  profes- 
sional educator  is,  that  eminent  excellence  in  his 
own  particular  science  is  for  him  the  ulti7na  ratio. 
He  cannot  well  view  it  as  a  means  to  an  end,  —  not 
if  he  loves  it,  as  it  is  presumed  he  does.  He  has 
little  or  no  time  allowed  him  to  show  his  pupils  the 
worth  of  what  they  are  upon,  as  it  stands  related  to 
the  demands  of  future  life.  There  is  a  certain  me- 
chanical exactitude  of  recitations  which  can  be  seen, 
and  heard,  and  handled,  up  to  which,  with  or  with- 
out ponies,  a  respectable  fraction  of  each  class  can 
be  urged,  and  a  proper  concern  for  his  own  reputa- 


48  THE   CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

tion  compels  each  teacher  to  see  to  it,  that  he  de- 
livers his  class,  in  due  time,  to  the  teacher  who  is  to 
follow  him,  in  condition  to  meet  the  requirements  of 
this  acknowledged  standard.  And  so  our  young  men 
go  through  our  schools  of  learning,  and  emerge  into 
the  real  world,  as  any  aspiring  collegian  will  tell  you, 
with  an  awkward  sense  of  having  somehow  lost  their 
identity,  and  all  its  fancied  consequence.  Then 
commences  the  struggle  to  mate  the  life  that  was 
with  the  life  that  is  ;  to  disabuse  the  mind  of  mis- 
taken estimates,  of  exaggerated  estimates  of  the 
student  world,  and  of  derogatory  estimates  of  the  real 
world.  Then  it  is  discovered  that  the  greatest  pos- 
sible acquisitions  in  some  one  science,  and  that,  an 
unusual  science  —  unusual,  in  that  it  is  removed  from 
the  experience  of  the  million  —  is  peculiarly  suited 
to  separate  the  teacher  and  his  pupil  from  their  kind. 
Dominie  Sampson  is  discovered  to  be  a  representa- 
tive man  ;  and  happy  for  young  Harry  Bertram  if  he 
escapes  growing  into  the  image  and  likeness  of  his 
master,  and  so  becoming  unfit  for  companionship 
with  the  world  he  is  to  live  in. 

The  necessity  of  thorough  mental  training  is  not 
to  be  questioned.  The  adaptation  of  Latin,  Greek, 
and  Mathematics,  to  develop  some  of  the  finest  pow- 
ers of  man,  will  never  be  doubted  by  those  who  have 
wisely  used  their  proffered  aid.  But  the  youth  who 
is  fed  on  this  diet  from  ten  to  twenty-three,  his  appe- 
tite stimulated  by  all  the  condiments  known  to  the 
schools,  will  be  in  danger  of   graduating  with   no 


WHY   PREACHING    FAILS.  49 

Stomach  for  common  food,  and  with  little  relish  for 
the  society,  on  equal  terms,  of  the  human  brother- 
hood to  which  he  is  predestined.  Our  educated 
men,  as  they  are  commonly  termed,  ought  to  be  the 
men  of  the  age.  The  men  of  the  age  are  the  men  of 
most  worth  to  the  age  they  live  in.  To  be  this,  they 
must  be  heartily  in  and  of  their  age  ;  must  thor- 
oughly know  and  deeply  sympathize  with  it.  Each 
age  has  its  own  characteristics.  Former  ages  have 
been  characterized  by  a  reverence  for  individual 
minds,  of  which,  in  our  age,  we  can  find  no  illustra- 
tion. The  age  of  hero-worship  has  perhaps  gone  by. 
Will  any  man  venture  to  assert  that  the  change  is 
altogether  and  only  for  the  worse  ?  The  age  of 
reverence  is  also  an  age  of  superstition,  and  of  vas- 
salage to  the  few  superior  minds.  Our  age  is  an  age 
of  fraternity,  of  sympathy,  and  of  co-operative 
energy  in  every  good  work.  Meanwhile  our  educa- 
tional system,  in  no  inconsiderable  degree,  is  the 
system  of  an  obsolete  age  ;  not  wholly  unaffected  by 
the  spirit  of  our  age,  in  that  it  has  caught  the  idea  of 
progress,  but  not  harmonizing  with  it,  in  its  applica- 
tion of  the  idea;  for  its  voice  is,  give  us  more 
Latin,  more  Greek ;  raise  the  standard  of  scholar- 
ship, and what  ?  Commend  the  sphere  of  schol- 
arship so  as  to  ensure  the  sympathy  of  all?  Nay, 
but  rather  widen  the  breach  between  the  learned  and 
the  unlearned,  and  maintain  the  high  prerogatives  of 
the  men  of  letters.  Such  is  its  interpretation  of  the 
exigencies  of  the  present  age.     It  is  an  error  in  any 


50  THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

age,  and  in  any  land,  and  most  emphatically  an  error 
in  this  land,  in  which  the  brotherhood  of  love  and 
good  will  is  universally  proclaimed  ;  in  which  no 
amomit  of  exact  science  will  bring  worthy  fame  to 
the  man  who  does  not  love  and  mingle  with  his 
fellow-men  as  fellow-men.  Our  educational  system 
has  blinded  the  eyes  of  not  a  few  of  our  preachers  to 
this  truth.  And  many  of  them  are  finding  their 
labors  increasingly  unsatisfactory,  just  because  of 
their  failure  to  apprehend  it. 

We  shall  indulge  in  no  supposititious  statements 
in  support  of  this  assertion  ;  but  confine  ourselves  to 
the  confirmatory  statements  of  living  witnesses.  In 
a  body  of  clergymen  recently  convened  in  this  com- 
monwealth, the  following  question  was  discussed  :  — 

"  May  improvements  be  made  in  the  prevalent 
method  of  sermonizing,  so  as  better  to  meet  the 
present  religious  wants  of  the  community  ?  "  "  The 
Rev.  N.  G.,  D.D.,  found  preaching  to  be  a  more  dif- 
ficult task  every  succeeding  year.  It  was  a  grave, 
practical  question,  whether  sound  Christian  doctrine 
could  be  so  preached  as  to  edif}'',  to  meet  the  modes 
of  thought  at  the  present  day.  There  was  talent 
enough,  thought  enough,  but  lack  of  adaptation ; 
the  pulpit  and  the  pews  moved  in  different  planes  of 
thought."  "The  Rev.  Mr.  C.  inquired  whether  it 
could  be  said  of  ministers  now,  as  of  those  of  olden 
time,  that  the  people  heard  them  gladly?  More 
sympathy  is  needed  between  pastors  and  people ; 
a  greater  development  of  our  humanity."     "Dr.  V. 


WHY    PREACHING    FAILS.  $1 

thought  there  was  a  great  lack  of  doctrinal  preach- 
ing." "  Rev.  Mr.  P.  deprecated  the  monotony  so 
prevalent,  the  monotonous  tones  of  the  uncultivated, 
and  no  less  the  Boston  style  of  refined  intonations." 
"  Rev.  Mr.  B.  said  that  the  ministers  who  succeeded 
at  the  West,  were  those  who  entered  heartily  into 
the  feelings  and  lives  of  the  people,  their  joys,  trials, 
and  difficulties."  "  Rev.  Mr.  A.  said  he  had  been 
taught  to  sermonize,  and  not  to  preach."  "  Dr. 
G.  thought  the  war  offered  great  opportunity  for 
overthrowing  the  '  rosewater  '  and  '  watergruel '  style 
of  preaching."  "  Dr.  B.  thought  a  clear  biblical 
conception  of  the  end  of  preaching  essential,  the 
conversion  and  sanctification  of  men,  and  that  that 
end  could  never  be  reached  without  the  aid  of 
the  Holy  Spirit."  "  Rev.  Mr.  Q.  considered  a  deep 
personal  experience  on  the  part  of  the  preacher 
vitally  necessary,  in  order  to  reach  the  hearts  of  the 
people ;  the  path  cannot  be  pointed  out  unless  we 
ourselves  have  travelled  it." 

From  this  debate  it  appears  that  the  current 
preaching  is  increasingly  difficult  and  unsatisfac- 
tory to  the  clergy;  that  they  doubt  if  the  people 
hear  them  gladly;  that  they  discover  a  want  of 
sympathy  between  pastors  and  people  ;  that  the  end 
of  preaching  is  not  clearly  discerned,  or  earnestly 
taught,  in  all  cases ;  and  finally  that  there  is  a  want 
of  deep  personal  experience,  and  of  conscious  de- 
pendence upon  the  Holy  Spirit. 

These  avowals  are  frank  and  wholesome.     They 


52  THE   CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

are  the  confessions  of  men  who  earnestly  desire  to 
do  better ;  to  discover,  if  possible,  and  to  remove 
the  impediments  to  the  largest  usefulness  under 
which  they  find  themselves  laboring.  These  expe- 
riences are  by  no  means  peculiar  to  this  common- 
wealth, or  to  this  continent.  A  recent  writer  in  the 
London  Record  expresses  his  belief  that  "  the  large 
majority  of  sermon-hearers  are  bored,  rather  than 
interested,  by  the  discourses  they  hear." 

We  maintain  that  this  melancholy  result  is  in  no 
inconsiderable  degree  to  be  referred  to  a  vicious  edu- 
cational system  ;  a  system  which  constantly  tempts 
its  pupils  to  make  scholarship,  and  not  the  redemp- 
tion and  amelioration  of  the  race,  the  chief  end  of 
life.  It  is  the  vice  of  selfishness;  a  subtle  form 
of  that  very  self-seeking  and  self-aggrandizement 
which  has  stained  our  whole  nation ;  which  even 
more  than  the  southern  monster  evil,  slavery,  has 
drawn  down  the  displeasure  of  heaven  upon  this 
hitherto  happy  and  prospered  land.  The  direct 
object  of  the  most  thorough  education  is  not  to 
bring  honor  to  the  student,  to  his  professor,  or  to  his 
Alma  Mater  ;  but  to  produce  a  man  qualified  and 
disposed  to  be,  in  the  highest  possible  degree,  useful 
to  his  fellow-men  ;  a  man  thoroughly  furnished  unto 
all  good  works,  and  full  of  the  heart  to  use  his  fur- 
niture, to  the  utmost,  in  such  works.  It  is  absurd 
for  any  man  to  think  of  preaching  the  gospel  of 
Christ  who  has  not  pledged  himself  to  God  and  his 
own  soul,  to  exterminate  every  root  of  selfishness 


WHY   PREACHING    FAILS.  53 

from  his  own  heart.  We  want  a  stalwart  ministry, 
able  to  rend  the  shackles  of  the  schools,  and  prompt 
to  use  that  method  of  discourse  which  will  accom- 
plish the  work  of  the  ministry  and  persuade  men. 
How  a  great  nation  of  the  old  world  can  endure  the 
control  of  a  sovereign  whose  only  title  is  succession, 
has  always  seemed  strange  and  inexplicable.  But 
while  thus  intolerant  of  a  civil  despotism  without 
merit,  we  have  bowed  our  necks  in  unreasoning  sub- 
mission to  the  merciless  yoke  of  an  educational  sys- 
tem which  exists  only  by  our  permission,  and  which 
it  is  in  our  power  to  rend  any  day. 

The  pulpit  cannot  lose  what  it  does  not  possess, 
and  the  ministry  will  never  be  trampled  on  for 
addressing  themselves  to  that  which  they  are  best 
able  to  do  well.  Unquestionably,  there  is  a  limited 
number  of  men  who  were  designed  by  God  to  write 
able  and  persuasive  essays  and  disquisitions ;  com- 
positions, whose  design  is,  in  a  scholarly  way,  to 
prove  or  illustrate  some  Bible  truth,  in  accordance 
with  the  sermons  of  the  masters  in  logic  and  rhetoric. 
Their  triumphant  success  vindicates  their  use  of  this 
method  ;  they  attract  large  congregations  ;  they  hold 
every  eye  and  ear  in  charmed  attention  ;  their  words 
sink  down  into  the  soul ;  their  lessons  are  never  for- 
gotten. There  are  not  enough  of  these  men  to  sup- 
ply all  the  pulpits  in  the  land,  even  were  all  the 
congregations  able  to  profit  by  such  a  ministry.  But 
there  are  congregations  enough  to  take  many  aspi- 
rants for  this  eminence,  who  never  attain  it ;  congre- 


54  THE   CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

gallons  who  mistake  the  aspiration  for  the  attainment ; 
and  who  are  ever  offering  a  bounty  to  young  minis- 
ters to  persevere  on  the  wrong  track.  There  are 
men,  well  fitted  to  be  very  useful  men,  who  were 
never  designed  to  affect  others  by  written  discourse  ; 
there  is  not  heat  enough  in  their  souls  to  animate 
abstract  ideas ;  a  sheet  of  paper  may  kindle  pine 
wood,  but  it  will  not  ignite  anthracite.  Even  John 
Foster,  that  giant  in  laborious  writing,  declares  that 
"  the  successes  of  intellectual  effort  are  never  so 
great  as  when  aided  by  the  affections  that  animate 
social  converse."  The  men  of  whom  we  speak  can- 
not dispense  with  the  animating  influence  of  the 
attentive  eye  and  ear,  demanding  the  sentiments 
which  only  that  visible  demand  will  call  into  being. 

Whether  for  better  or  for  worse,  we  see  not  how  it 
can  be  denied  that  the  peculiar  power  the  pulpit 
once  possessed  is  much  abated.  This  is,  in  fact,  the 
not  unfrequent  complaint  of  the  clerg}^  It  is  wise 
to  inquire  for  the  reason.  It  may  prove  not  to  be 
an  occasion  of  unqualified  regret.  It  may  turn  to 
the  advantage  of  both  preacher  and  people,  that  we 
have  come  to  distinguish  between  the  office  and  the 
man ;  between  the  pulpit  and  what  is  said  from  it. 
It  may  necessitate  the  discovery  and  use  of  each 
man's  own  gift.  And  how  many  men  in  a  hundred, 
think  you,  will  discover  the  gift  to  write  and  to  read 
so  as  to  secure  the  attention  and  profit  of  the  major- 
ity of  their  congregations  ? 

Undoubtedly  there  are  difficulties  to  be  overcome 


WHY   PREACHING   FAILS.  55 

in  attaining  ability  in  extemporaneous  and  in  exposi- 
tory discourse.  We  have  not  been  unwarned  of  the 
danger  of  sinking  into  mere  commonplace.  But  to 
make  the  argument  convincing,  it  must  be  shown 
that  those  who  cannot  be  enkindled  to  the  most 
useful,  intellectual,  and  emotional  life,  when  in  the 
focus  of  some  hundreds  of  intelligent  eyes  and  ardent 
hearts,  can  more  surely  acquire  this  fervor  in  the 
isolation  of  the  study.  But  were  the  argument  in 
favor  of  extemporaneous  discourse,  derived  from  the 
necessities  of  adults,  insufficient,  the  almost  total 
failure  of  written  discourses  to  secure  the  interest  of 
the  young,  appears  to  us  to  be  unanswerable.  A 
wise  mother  in  Israel,  across  the  water,  has  written 
"An  Appeal  to  the  Ministers  of  Christ  in  behalf  of 
the  Little  Ones."  She  will  be  heard  in  time ;  not 
yet,  perhaps  ;  for  the  majority  will  say,  "  We  can't 
extemporize  ;  we  cannot  do  ourselves,  or  our  sub- 
jects, justice  in  extemporaneous  discourse."  And 
many  will  own  that  "  they  cannot  talk  to  children." 
Then  you  cannot  talk  to  the  majority  of  your  congre- 
gations, and  we  much  fear  that  you  have  mistaken 
your  vocation.  But  the  truth  of  the  matter  is,  if  you 
were  in  your  proper  vocation,  you  could  and  would 
talk  to  children,  and  that  successfully,  had  you  not 
been  in  some  way  persuaded  of  the  paramount  impor- 
tance of  excelling  in  a  kind  of  preaching  which  you 
find  incompatible  with  this.  Highly  intellectual  and 
scholarly  discourse  doubtless  has  its  proper  sphere, 
but  we  don't  want  Blair  or  Butler  to  edify  our  chil- 


$6  THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

dren.  "The  little  ones,"  whether  in  years  or  in 
development,  were  made  to  be  reached  through  the 
heart,  heart  throbbing  against  heart,  glimmering  in 
the  eyes,  trembling  on  the  tongue,  soliciting  and 
winning  an  immediate  assent,  and  enlisting  the 
enkindled  affections  for  God  and  holiness.  Hear 
that  mother:  "Are  the  discourses  delivered  from 
our  pulpits  fitted  to  be  a  help  in  training  young 
hearts  to  love  the  Sabbath  ?  The  whispered '  ques- 
tion, '  When  will  it  be  done  ? '  and  the  look  of  relief 
when  it  is  done,  awaken  anxious  thoughts  in  a  moth- 
er's heart;  and  while  she  leads  them  homeward, 
painful  questions  stir  within  her  as  to  the  practical 
effect  of  their  regular  attendance  at  church.  Is  it 
not  really  teaching  them  to  call  the  Sabbath  a  weari- 
ness, to  sit  before  the  Lord  as  his  people  sit,  while 
the  ever  busy  mind  is  far  away,  seeking  relief  from 
its  own  bright  imaginings  ?  " 

But  hear  this  witness  further :  "  The  loud  tone  of 
declamation  conveys  to  a  young  child  the  idea  of 
anger ;  and  the  image  of  an  angry  minister  becomes 
associated  with  that  of  an  angry  God.  This  is  one 
reason  why  the  religion  of  children  is  often  one  of 
fear;  hence  often  arise  those  vague  and  terrifying 
thoughts  which  darken  their  bright  and  confiding 
spirits,  and  scare  them  from  the  tender  arms  of  the 
good  shepherd.  What  a  blessing  it  would  be  to 
mothers  and  children  (ay,  to  all  the  congregation), 
if  ministers  would  take  with  them  from  their  firesides 
to  the  pulpit  the  simple,  friendly  tone  of  conversa- 


WHY   PREACHING   FAILS.  57 

tion  on  spiritual  things."  A  blessing  indeed  !  but 
alas,  both  the  pulpit  and  the  pew,  acting  and  react- 
ing upon  each  other,  have  come  to  an  agreement 
that  the  dignity  of  the  minister,  and  not  the  less  the 
dignity  of  the  congregation,  demands  an  intellectual, 
scholastic,  and  eloquent  presentation,  such  as  shall 
authorize  the  people  to  glory  in  their  minister. 
Because  of  this  bad  ambition,  some  of  our  churches 
are  weak  and  sickly,  and  some  sleep. 

"We  have  been  told,"  says  that  mother,  "by  an 
aged  minister,  that  he  had  taken  great  pains  to  ascer- 
tain what  kind  of  preaching  was  most  used  of  God  in 
converting  and  edifying  men ;  and  the  inquiries  of  a 
long  life,  among  Christians  of  different  denomina- 
tions, had  brought  him  to  this  conclusion,  namely, 
that  most  good  is  done  by  conversational  preaching." 
Of  course  it  would  be  so.  And  this  kind  of  preach- 
ing has  the  sanction  of  our  Lord's  example ;  and  yet, 
such  is  the  power  of  traditional  persuasion,  such  the 
self-perpetuating  influence  of  the  scholastic  usage, 
and  of  esprit  du  corps,  that  the  great  majority  of 
preachers  will  go  through  life  reiterating  their  melan- 
choly confessions  of  dissatisfaction  with  their  minis- 
try, sacrificing  both  good  sense  and  usefulness,  rather 
than  break  away  from  the  established  order  of  read- 
ing the  old  to  sleep  and  the  young  into  hatred  of  the 
day  and  house  of  God. 

Now  there  are  not  a  few  ministers,  good  men  and 
true,  who  seem  to  have  no  suspicion  that  this  is  not 
an  inevitable   and    unchangeable  order   of    things. 


58  THE   CHRISTIAN   MINISTRV. 

They  will  tell  you,  and  tell  you  truly,  that  they  can- 
not preach  to  children,  and  there  they  rest  —  nay, 
there's  little  rest  in  it  —  but  there  they  stick  fast. 
"  It  would  almost  seem,"  says  the  mother  I  have 
quoted,  *'  that  the  King's  ambassadors  are  acting  in 
the  belief  that  his  rale  has  been  reversed  ;  that  it 
has  now  become  God's  method  to  reveal  these  things 
to  the  wise  and  prudent,  and  to  hide  them  from  the 
babes."  Our  age  is  often  characterized  as  an  intel- 
ligent age ;  it  would,  perhaps,  be  more  just  to  speak 
of  it  as  an  age  of  remarkable  mental  activity  ;  but  in 
all  that  pertains  to  religious  instruction,  the  common, 
not  to  say  constant  mistake,  is  to  assume  a  correct- 
ness of  apprehension  that  does  not  exist.  We  are 
not  sufficiently  mindful  that  as  the  natural  man 
receiveth  not  the  things  of  the  spirit  of  God,  so  every 
degenerate  man  is  slow  of  heart,  both  to  understand 
and  to  believe  all  the  prophets,  apostles,  and  our 
Lord  himself  have  spoken  ;  and  the  large  majority  of 
all  our  congregations  require,  not  necessarily  mono- 
syllables, but  truth  in  that  form,  easy  of  appre- 
hension, which  animated  conversation  offers.  ''  In 
former  days,"  says  the  writer  quoted,  "  nothing  was 
brought  down  to  the  capacity  of  childhood ;  the 
week-day  task  and  the  Sabbath  sermon  were  alike 
unintelligible.  But  now  the  sermon  stands  in  con- 
trast with  all  the  other  means  of  instruction  pro- 
vided." Lessons  in  everything  but  in  religion  are 
enforced  by  every  aid  animated  conversation  can 
supply.     Looks,  tones,  gestures,  figures,  illustrations. 


WHY    PREACHING    FAILS.  59 

all  spring  into  life  spontaneously,  offering  the  utmost 
power  of  persuasion,  when  an  earnest  man  converses 
with  those  whom  he  desires  to  influence.  The  con- 
sciousness of  getting  hold  of  them  unlocks  his  own 
fountains  of  feeling,  and  asks,  and  receives  a  corre- 
sponding outgoing  of  sympathy  from  them.  Such 
were  Christ's  conversation  sermons  ;  and  they  are 
our  model.  And  why  should  any  of  our  preachers 
hesitate  to  accept  them  as  such  ?  Because  it  is  not 
the  fashion  of  our  day.  Because  hardly  a  man,  in 
or  out  of  the  pulpit,  is  able  to  believe  that  the  minis- 
try could  sustain  itself,  if  divested  of  the  flowing 
robes  and  embroidered  garments  of  scholastic  rheto- 
ric. Because  men  are  afraid  to  risk  a  style  of  ser- 
monizing that  has  nothing  to  recommend  it  but  its 
fitness  to  convince,  convert,  and  persuade  to  holy 
living.  We  can  put  our  finger  at  this  moment  upon 
a  prominent  church,  past  the  incipient  stage  of  disso- 
lution, mortally  stricken  with  this  disease  ;  they  can't 
find  a  minister  with  a  competent  wardrobe.  The 
great  shepherd  could  send  them  one  clothed  in  the 
beauty  of  holiness,  and  apt  to  teach ;  but  they  must 
have  a  change  of  raiment;  not  silk  and  muslin  — 
they  reject  that,  but  are  not  less  tenacious  of  what 
better  deserves  to  be  rejected  as  "millinery."  They 
cannot  venture  their  interests  in  the  hands  of  one 
who  is  simply  "  strong  in  the  Lord,  and  in  the  power 
of  his  might."  They  are  slow  to  believe  that  a  shep- 
herd's sling  and  smooth  stones  out  of  the  brook 
could  be  any  match  for  the  ponderous  armor  of  the 


60  THE    CHRISTIAN   MINISTRY. 

Philistine.  Only  those  who,  in  their  love  and  defe- 
rence for  our  Lord's  teaching,  have  become  as  little 
children,  are  willing  to  throw  themselves  upon  the 
simplest  forms  of  speech  as  best  adapted  to  convey 
the  weightiest  lessons  in  religious  truth ;  only  those 
who  have  forgotten  themselves  in  their  tender  con- 
cern for  "  the  little  ones,"  and  who  are  content  to  be 
esteemed  fools  for  their  sake  and  for  Christ's  sake ; 
only  these  can  believe  that  the  Holy  Ghost,  the 
indwelling  Comforter,  can  and  will  teach  those 
who  rely  on  him,  how  to  converse  with  man  about 
the  things  of  God.  Practically,  many  a  preacher, 
many  a  church,  too,  are  in  the  condition  of  those 
Ephesians  who  had  not  so  much  as  heard  whether 
there  be  any  Holy  Ghost. 

No  one  will  deny  the  superiority  of  written  dis- 
course in  those  characteristics  which  commend  such 
discourse  to  the  admiration  of  the  critical  hearer ; 
for  example,  in  breadth  of  view ;  in  the  comprehen- 
sion of  many  particulars ;  in  scholastic  method,  in 
careful  elaboration,  in  completeness,  in  finish,  and 
polish.  But  to  meet  the  wishes  of  such  hearers  is 
very  far  from  being  the  first  duty,  or  the  legitimate 
province  of  the  preacher.  When  John  sent  two  of 
his  disciples  to  learn  if  Jesus  were  the  Christ,  one 
of  the  vouchers  adduced  was  this :  "  To  the  poor  the 
gospel  is  preached."  The  poor  are  unlearned  and 
uncritical.  In  that  sense  they  constitute  the  majority 
of  our  congregations  to-day.  Christ's  method  was 
singular  in  that  it  was  not  scholastic.     The  majority 


WHY   PREACHING   FAILS.  6l 

of  preachers,  keeping  near  to  Christ,  would  be  singu- 
lar to-day,  and  for  the  same  reason  ;  the  supreme 
concern  to  persuade  men  to  be  reconciled  to  God, 
would  put  them  upon  that  use  of  language  which 
would  get  the  ear  and  understanding  of  the  multi- 
tude. And  though  a  man  here  and  there  may  be  so 
endowed  of  God  that  his  natural  and  proper  line  of 
things  is  to  affect  men  most  powerfully  and  usefully 
by  elaborate  written  discourse,  the  men  who  can  do 
this  are  exceptions  to  the  general  rule.  Where  one 
is  capable  of  doing  this,  and  of  so  doing  it  as  to  rise 
superior  to  the  natural  inaptitude  of  most  men  to  be 
swayed  by  such  discourse,  there  are  hundreds  who 
can  do  nothing  of  the  kind ;  and  whose  attempts  to 
do  it  can  result  in  nothing  but  loss  and  detriment 
to  their  hearers,  and  disappointment  and  discourage- 
ment to  themselves.  The  attainment  of  a  decent 
mediocrity  in  this  direction  will  be  secured  only  by 
the  sacrifice  of  nearly  all  the  elements  of  power 
which  belong  to  free  discourse  when  prompted  and 
animated  by  a  living  sympathy  with  those  who  are 
addressed.  Do  we  not  all  know  that  there  are  many 
men  who  converse  well,  who  are  very  acceptable 
speakers  in  off-hand  discourse,  who  can  contribute 
their  full  quota  to  the  interest  of  any  informal  gath- 
ering, for  almost  any  purpose,  who  no  sooner  enter 
the  pulpit  than  the  breath  of  common  life  forsakes 
them  ?  they  have  got  above  fruits  and  flowers,  above 
animal  life,  away  up  in  the  region  of  dwarf  shrubs 
and  stunted  pines,  and  near  to  perpetual  frost.     It  is 


62  THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

a  transition  from  the  walking-dress  of  prompt,  ani- 
mated, agreeable  conversation,  in  which  the  speaker 
was  entirely  at  home,  and  able  to  meet  any  demand 
made  upon  him,  to  the  heavy  armor  of  formal  prelec- 
tions, and  the  supposed  necessity  of  marshalling 
platoons  of  unaccustomed  polysyllables  into  active 
service,  under  a  weight  of  dignity  much  more  in 
accordance  with  a  dress  parade  than  with  real  work 
to  be  done. 

Immediate  favor  for  the  views  now  urged  we  do  not 
expect ;  and  that  for  several  reasons.  The  work  of 
education  is  mostly  in  the  hands  of  those  long 
wedded  to  a  different  course.  Teachers  and  preach- 
ers from  time  immemorial  have  accepted  as  the  high- 
est and  almost  only  models,  intellectual  labors 
designed  to  win  applause  for  their  originality,  imagi- 
nation, logic,  rhetoric,  or  learning.  They  are  unable 
to  believe  that  a  departure  from  these  models  can  be 
anything  but  a  grievous  loss  to  both  speaker  and 
hearer.  It  is  in  this  view  of  the  case  that  we  find 
some  of  them  protesting  that  "  the  modes  of  thought 
and  feeling  in  the  pews  ought  to  be  raised  to  those 
of  the  pulpit,  rather  than  the  reverse."  They  cannot 
think  it  right  to  yield  to  the  growing  demand  for  a 
less  dignified  and  less  scholastic  presentation  of 
truth;  they  cannot  pander  —  so  they  esteem  it  —  to 
a  depraved  appetite  for  something  stimulating.  They 
feel  sure  that  in  so  doing  they  should  lower  the 
standard  and  lessen  the  influence  of  preaching.  Now 
all   such    objections  have   a  foundation,  in  part,  in 


WHY    PREACHING   FAILS.  63 

truth.  There  are  undoubtedly  men  in  every  congre- 
gation, more  or  fewer,  who  would  be  best  pleased  to 
be  entertained  with  novelties ;  who  do  not  go  to 
church  for  religious  instruction  and  improvement. 
But  these  objections  are  in  part  without  foundation, 
because  of  assuming  that  the  demand  for  a  more 
animating  style  of  preaching  than  sufficed  our  fore- 
fathers, necessarily  involves  the  sacrifice  of  dignity, 
sound  wisdom,  and  deep  piety,  and  that  this  demand 
comes  only  from  those  who  have  itching  ears.  They 
have  never  witnessed,  say  the  objectors,  an  instance 
of  marked  success  in  the  conversational  line ;  they 
doubt  if  such  a  thing  could  be ;  the  nearest  ap- 
proaches to  it  they  have  ever  seen  were  accompanied 
by  such  infelicities  as  made  them  cling  to  the  old 
method  with  more  tenacity  than  ever."*  They  find  no 
warrant  in  any  conscious  ability  to  accomplish  much 
by  pulpit  conversation,  to  infer  that  the  rising  gene- 
ration are  likely  to  effect  more.  Why  not  be  content 
with  the  old  method  which  is  safe,  rather  than 
attempt  new  ways,  which  are  uncertain,  and  known 
to  be  attended  with  some  risk  ?  Every  department 
of  life  is  filled  with  illustrations  of  a  like  unwilling- 
ness to  listen  to  demands  for  changes  from  accus- 
tomed ways.  We  have  not  forgotten  the  resistance 
steamboats  and  locomotives  encountered,  when  it 
was  proposed  to  substitute  these  for  stage  coaches 
and  sailing  vessels.  We  are  all  creatures  of  habit,  and 
most  unwilling  to  surrender  the  vantage  ground  and 
»  Get  and  study  Rev.  Richard  Newton's  "  Sermons  for  Children." 


64  THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

confidence  which  habit  and  use  supply.  There  is  a 
weighty  reason  for  not  being  content  with  the  old 
method  of  preaching;  it  does  not  accomplish  the 
work  ;  it  does  not  persuade  men.  The  preachers 
themselves  being  witnesses,  our  congregations  are 
falling  off.  There  is  reason  to  believe  that  the  fault 
is  with  the  pastors  and  churches;  we  have  no  right 
to  be  content  with  the  indifference  to  religious  in- 
struction which  prevails.  We  all  know  that  intelli- 
gent, animated  conversation,  on  any  topic,  easily 
secures  the  attention  of  all  within  hearing,  who  are 
able  to  comprehend  the  matter  of  it ;  while  preach- 
ing is  almost  a  synonym  for  something  which,  though 
respectable  for  its  origin  and  ostensible  purpose,  is 
hard  to  be  endured,  and,  when  possible,  is  to  be 
assiduously  avoided.  The  majority  of  hearers  have 
so  long  accustomed  themselves  to  endure  sermons 
with  martyr  resignation,  as  an  inevitable  evil,  that 
religious  teachings  to  be  eagerly  anticipated  and 
lovingly  desired,  are  something  seldom  or  never 
realized,  and  often  regarded  as  without  the  pale  of 
probability.     Consider  C.  S.  Spurgeon.   . 

There  is  no  obligation  to  be  longer  resigned  to 
this  state  of  things.  On  the  part  of  the  people  it 
would  be  an  unworthy  and  censurable  resignation, 
as  implying  an  indifference  to  religious  truth,  whether 
it  were  made  interesting  and  available  or  not;  making 
church-going  significant  of  superstition,  formalism,  or 
hypocrisy.  On  the  part  of  the  preacher  it  would  be 
the  extreme  of  cowardice  and  inhunianity ;  of  supine- 


WHY   PREACHING   FAILS.  6$ 

ness  and  of  disloyalty  to  God.  Such  was  not  the  resig- 
nation of  the  Apostle  Paul,  who  says,  *'  I  am  made 
all  things  to  all  men,  that  I  might  by  all  means  save 
some."  We  do  not  mean,  for  an  instant,  to  deny 
that  existing  methods  have  done  much  for  the  limited 
number  who  have  come  under  their  best  influences ; 
but  we  do  mean  to  assert,  what  is  patent  to  all,  that 
they  fail  of  arresting  the  attention,  and  of  engaging 
the  interest  of  the  very  large  majority  of  men, 
women,  and  children.  They  are  not  won  by  them, 
and  never  will  be  won  by  them,  to  the  knowledge 
and  love  of  God.  To  indulge  a  vague  belief  that 
God  will  some  day  miraculously  interpose  to  impart 
an  irresistible  efficacy  to  a  kind  of  preaching  which 
is  at  present  so  nearly  powerless,  is  not  the  part  of 
faith,  but  rather  of  presumption  and  of  indolence ;  it 
is  to  take  a  sleeping  potion  in  place  of  shaking  off 
dull  sloth  and  girding  on  the  whole  armor  of  God. 
Resignation  to  an  indifferent  and  apathetic  audience, 
Christ  and  eternal  life  being  the  theme,  when  it  rests 
with  the  preacher  to  rouse  them  to  the  highest  con- 
dition of  animated  life,  is  worse  than  Oriental  fatal- 
ism. It  is  being  resigned  to  have  God's  work  suffer 
in  our  hands ;  resigned  to  the  dishonor  of  God's 
drafts  on  us  for  treasures  placed  in  our  hands  for 
their  use.  But,  you  are  perhaps  saying,  "  I  am  not 
sensible  that  it  does  rest  with  me  thus  to  rouse  men 
to  a  sense  of  the  worth  of  eternal  things."  No,  nor 
will  you  be  likely  to  become  so,  so  long  as  you  hang 
back  and  stand  behind  your  written  discourse,  and 


66  THE   CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

fear  to  trust  to  the  inspiration  of  the  Spirit,  even 
when  you  have  done  your  utmost  to  penetrate  and 
to  be  penetrated  by  truth.  You  pray,  "  Lord,  in- 
crease my  faith,"  but  refuse  to  venture  in  the  strength 
of  all  his  promises,  to  give  the  message  entrusted  to 
you  its  best  chance  to  be  heard  and  to  win  its  way  to 
the  heart. 

It  is  a  hopeful  indication  that  some  of  our  preach- 
ers are  becoming  alive  to  this  ,•  that  they  are  begin- 
ning to  recognize  the  necessity  of  a  change ;  to 
realize  the  absurdity  of  entering  the  arena  of  strife 
for  the  souls  of  men,  with  a  manuscript  sermon,  to 
read  men  out  of  confirmed  habits  of  disobedience 
to  God,  and  of  neglect  of  their  own  souls,  by  a 
logical  disquisition  on  the  disadvantages  of  such 
habits,  delivered  in  that  reading  tone  which  no 
reader  wholly  escapes,  and  which  very  few,  with  all 
the  wear  and  tear  of  unnatural  earnestness,  can  free 
from  an  irresistible  soporific  influence.  God's  truth 
deserves  to  have  every  advantage  of  a  living  advo- 
cacy. God's  demand  upon  man  is  for  his  heart; 
and  whoever  heard  of  winning  love  by  reading ! 
Just  conceive  of  human  intercourse  with  all  its 
thousand  persuasive  and  winning  ways  of  looks, 
tones,  gestures,  illustrations,  and  arguments,  sup- 
plied by  the  spontaneity  of  exuberant  life,  put  into 
the  strait-jacket  of  formal  reading  !  Men  are 
called  in  the  Scriptures  "the  children  of  the  Most 
High ; "  and  God  speaks  of  himself  as  a  most  ten- 
derly affectionate  Father.     His  messengers  are  sent 


WHY    PREACHING    FAILS.  6/ 

to  his  obedient  and  also  to  his  disobedient  children  ; 
with  instructions  to  commend  and  encourage  the 
one,  and  to  reprove  and  reclaim  the  other.  No 
instructions  are  given  to  read  them  disquisitional 
essays,  but  they  are  commanded  to  warn,  and  entreat, 
and  instruct  in  word,  in  conversation,  in  charity,  hi 
spirit,  in  faith,  in  purity.  They  were  of  course  to 
read  for  their  own  profit  and  to  store  their  minds 
and  hearts,  too,  with  matter  for  exhortation  and  for 
doctrine ;  but  being  thus  thoroughly  furnished  to 
every  good  work,  they  were  to  give  the  truth  in 
such  manner  and  form  as  would  ensure  its  doing 
its  errand.  Every  friend  of  virtue  knows  the  power 
of  lively,  animated  conversation,  in  the  hands  of 
wicked  men,  to  corrupt  our  youth  ;  but  it  is  hard 
to  convince  those  who  have  not  made  full  proof  of 
conversation  for  good  purposes,  how  great  a  power 
is  lying  unused  in  their  hands.  We  often  hear  it 
stated  that  preaching  is  God's  appointed  method  of 
saving  the  world ;  and  the  passage  is  quoted,  "It 
pleased  God  by  the  foolishness  of  preaching  to  save 
them  that  believe ; "  but  no  evidence  has  been 
adduced  to  vindicate  the  assumption  that  the  read- 
ing of  written  sermons  is  the  preaching  here  intended. 
The  reasonable  presumption  is  that  written  sermons 
were  wholly  unknown  when  the  Apostle  recorded 
that  fact.  His  charge  to  Timothy  to  "preach  the 
word,  instant  in  season,  out  of  season,"  harmonizes 
well  with  the  supposition  that  he  talked,  talked  ear- 
nestly, and  as  the  Spirit  gave  him  utterance.     When 


6S  THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

Christ  commanded  his  disciples,  "  Go  ye  into  all  the 
world  and  preach  the  gospel  to  every  creature,"  had 
he  any  intention  that  a  line  or  two  from  that  gospel 
should  suffice  as  a  mere  motto  to  some  long  disquisi- 
tion on  the  nature  of  true  virtue,  interspersed  with 
hints  of  Christ  and  his  salvation  as  remote  from  the 
apprehension  of  the  common  hearer  as  the  fixed 
stars  ?  We  have,  it  is  true,  a  great  many  discourses 
that  are  not  so.  bad  as  this;  but  we  have  a  great 
many  that  fail  of  establishing  an  inevitable  convic- 
tion, ^/ii's  is  the  very  word  of  God.  We  have  many  a 
prayer  after  a  sermon,  that  God  would  bless  his  truth 
now .  presented,  which  starts  the  question.  Has  his 
truth  been  presented  ?  We  had  a  good  text ;  but 
the  long  discourse  failed  of  establishing  any  close 
and  living  relation  to  that  text;  and  taking  matter 
and  manner  into  the  account,  we  cannot  resist  the 
conviction  that  the  Lord  is  of  our  mind,  in  demurring 
to  recognize  what  has  now  been  spoken,  as  his  mes- 
sage to  that  congregation.  We  came  to  the  house  of 
prayer  hoping  to  meet  a  messenger  from  God,  speak- 
ing the  truth  in  love ;  not  love  in  a  figure,  or  on 
stilts ;  not  love  "  in  linked  sweetness  long  drawn 
out ; "  or  in  well  rounded  periods,  in  the  full  cos- 
tume of  pulpit  rhetoric  and  logic ;  but  love  unre- 
strained and  overflowing  from  an  inexhaustible 
fountain  of  divine  and  human  tenderness,  from  the 
very  life  of  God  in  the  soul  of  man.  In  place  of 
that  we  get  an  essay,  a  disquisition,  a  homily.  We 
asked  for  bread,  and  received  a  stone. 


WHY    PREACHING    FAILS.  69 

Take  the  ministerial  account  of  existing  failures  ; 
here  it  is  :  "  There  is  talent  enough,  thought  enough, 
but  lack  of  adaptation."  Could  there  be  a  greater 
lack  than  this  ?  Why  a  stone  has  weight,  and  form, 
and  color,  in  perfection  ;  but  it  lacks  adaptation  ;  it 
won't  nourish.  The  preaching  which  so  extensively 
prevails  may  have  a  form  of  sacred  words,  but  what 
if  it  fails  to  get  the  ear  and  the  interest  of  the 
majority  of  the  congregation  ?  Is  it  successful 
preaching  ? 

"  Ah,"  it  is  said,  "  preaching  is  different  from  any- 
thing else ;  it  has  the  peculiar  disadvantage  of  offer- 
ing an  unwelcome  theme ;  for  the  majority  of  the 
people,  like  Gallio,  care  for  none  of  these  things." 

It  is  not  to  be  ..denied  that  "the  natural  man 
receiveth  not  the  things  of  the  spirit  of  God ; "  but 
the  attempt  to  derive  from  this  a  full  account  of  the 
want  of  interest  in  our  Sabbath  services,  comes  of  an 
unwillingness  to  convict  ourselves  of  failure  in  duty. 
The  assertion,  "  These  are  spiritual  truths,  which  only 
the  spiritual  man  can  discern,"  is  hastily  and  most 
unwarrantably  assumed  to  be  equivalent  to  the 
declaration  that  faithful  preaching  must  necessarily 
be  uninteresting  to  the  majority  of  any  congregation. 
This  assumption,  if  allowed,  would  certainly  offer  a 
convenient  screen,  for  those  who  desire  one,  to  pro- 
tect uninteresting  and  unproductive  discourses  from 
rebuke  and  censure ;  but  it  cannot  be  allowed,  for  it 
is  utterly  untrue.  The  real  account  of  the  matter 
has  been  perhaps  inadvertently,  but  truly  given ;  the 


70  THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

sermons  which  fail  to  get  the  ear  and  interest  of 
our  congregations,  "fail  through  lack  of  adapta- 
tion." 

"  What ! "  it  will  perhaps  be  demanded,  with  flushed 
cheek  and  perturbed  mind,  "  do  you  mean  to  assert 
that  I  do  not  preach  that  gospel  which  St.  Paul 
declares  to  be  'the  power  of  God  unto  salvation 
to  every  one  that  believeth  } '  " 

We  assert  nothing.  We  simply  assent  to  what 
you  have  affirmed,  as  a  truth  confirmed  by  our  own 
observation,  that  there  is  in  most  preaching  a  lack 
of  adaptation.  It  is  adapted  to  weary  and  to  alien- 
ate, not  to  interest  and  to  enlist  in  the  service  of 
Christ.  It  seems  in  your  hands  to  lack  the  manli- 
ness and  the  heartiness  of  the"  Apostle  whom  you 
have  quoted.  The  man  who  gloried  in  the  cross  of 
Christ,  who  cared  naught  for  bonds  and  affliction, 
who  declared,  "None  of  these  things  move  me, 
neither  count  I  my  life  dear  unto  myself,  so  that  I 
might  finish  my  course  with  joy  and  the  ministry 
which  I  have  received  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  to  testify 
the  gospel  of  the  grace  of  God."  Think  you  this 
man  ever  contented  himself  with  reading  his  message 
to  an  uninterested  congregation,  consoling  himself 
under  his  unproductive  labor  with  the  assertion  that 
the  gospel  must  needs  be  dull  to  the  unspiritual  ? 
No,  indeed  }  that  did  not  the  Apostle  Paul.  He  had 
experience  of  congregations  of  all  sorts ;  believing 
and  unbelieving ;  decorous  and  riotous ;  assenting 
and  dissenting ;  but  uninterested  !  —  never. 


WHY    PREACHING    FAILS.  7 1 

"  Well,  what  would  you  have  ?  He  that  finds  fault 
with  our  existing  order  of  things  is  bound  to  point 
out  the  remedy.     How  shall  we  amend  }  " 

We  answer,  get  a  deeper  experience  of  the  love  of 
God  in  your  own  soul.  Give  yourself  to  Christ  in  a 
far  more  comprehensive  consecration  than  you  have 
ever  yet  attained  to.  Get  such  an  experience  of  the 
indwelling  Comforter  that  you  shall  dare  to  tell  it, 
naturally,  earnestly,  with  a  single  eye  and  heart  to 
the  weal  of  your  hearer;  in  sublime  indifference 
to  all  that  the  schools  and  the  schoolmen  have  to 
say  against  untrammelled  conversational  preaching. 
You  want  nothing  but  a  greatly  increased  knowl- 
edge, and  fearless  love  of  Christ,  and  of  his  love  to 
man,  to  supply  all  your  lack  of  adaptation.  Get  this 
and  you  will  need  no  argument  in  favor  of  a  natural 
and  most  effective  manner  of  preaching.  And  do 
not  fail  to  remember  that  you  can  have  what  you 
need  for  the  asking;  for  your  Heavenly  Father  is 
more  willing  to  give  his  Spirit  to  them  that  ask  him, 
than  parents  to  give  good  gifts  to  their  children. 

[Since  writing  the  above,  Rev.  Dr.  Jessup,  one  of  our  missionaries 
at  Beirut,  Syria,  writes  to  Rev.  Dr  Richard  Newton,  of  Philadelphia : 
"  Vou  are  aware  that  we  already  have  five  of  your  volumes  of  '  Chil- 
dren's Sermons '  translated  into  Arabic.  I  feel  sure  that  next  to  issu- 
ing the  Arabic  Bible,  this  is  the  best  work  our  press  has  done.  The 
Arabic-speaking  portion  of  the  world's  population  is  136,000,000." 
Dr.  Jessup  has  begun  translating  Dr.  Newton's  four  volumes  of  "  The 
Life  of  Christ  for  the  Young."  Think  of  this,  ye  that  crave  our  Lord's 
"  Well  done,"  and  study  Dr.  Newton's  sermons.] 


IV. 


RELIGIOUS    CONVERSATION. 


JOHN  the  Baptist  was  declared  by  our  Saviour  to 
have  no  superior  among  them  that  are  born  of 
women.  His  greatness  lay  in  his  being  the  first  to 
talk  about  Jesus  ;  in  his  being  specially  commissioned 
to  do  this.  Behold,  he  said,  the  Lamb  of  God,  which 
taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world.  And  he  went  on 
in  a  very  simple  way  to  speak  of  his  superiority  to 
himself,  his  previous  existence,  his  baptism  of  the 
Holy  Ghost;  he  was  witness  to  this,  and  testified 
that  Jesus  is  the  Son  of  God. 

John's  disciples  were  very  much  interested  in  these 
simple  statements,  and  they  followed  Jesus.  After 
stopping  with  him  that  day,  these  two  listeners  to  his 
words  went  in  pursuit  of  others.  Andrew  found  his 
own  brother  Simon,  and  told  him  that  he  had  found 
the  Messiah.  Philip  found  Nathanael,  and  told  him 
the  same  story.  And  so  the  story  of  Jesus  was  com- 
municated from  one  to  another.  There  were  a  great 
many  listeners,  it  seemed,  and  interested  listeners, 
too.  There  are  a  great  many  to-day. 
72 


RELIGIOUS    CONVERSATION.  73 

It  is  wonderful  what  a  mystery  wise  men  will  make 
of  the  story  of  Jesus,  and  how  to  get  a  hearing 
for  it. 

"  Very  difficult !  very  difficult  indeed,"  says  one ; 
"it's  easy  to  talk  on  any  common  subject,  but  very 
hard  to  talk  about  religion." 

To  be  sure  it  is ;  religion,  as  you  name  it,  is  a  sys- 
tem of  philosophy  in  the  hands  of  a  monk  or  of  an 
inquisitor-general ;  or  a  dry  theology  in  the  mouth  of 
a  metaphysician.  By  all  means  let  us  drop  it,  and 
talk  of  Christ,  and  what  he  can  do,  has  done,  and  is 
willing  now  to  do  for  a  human  soul.  It  is  the  easiest 
thing  in  the  world  for  a  simple,  unpretending  disciple 
of  Christ  to  talk  of  his  Master,  and  it  is  one  of  the 
most  interesting  things  to  hear  him.  Such  a  disci- 
ple's love  is  contagious.  There  is  no  mounting  stilts 
or  batteries ;  no  pretentious  language,  no  threaten- 
ing of  a  war  of  words,  to  provoke  opposition  and 
retaliation. 

"  Ah ! "  I  hear  you  say,  "  such  statements  are 
easily  made,  but  you  can't  change  the  fact,  that  what 
you  recommend  is  very,  very  difficult." 

That  is  true,  my  friend,  /  can't  change  the  fact 
that  some  disciples  find  it  very  difficult ;  nor  can  I 
overcome  that  difficulty  ;  but  our  Lord  has  the  power, 
and  that  power  He  will  give  to  such  as  really  desire 
it ;  and  by  such,  I  mean  those  who  care  enough  for 
it  to  be  willing  to  make  any  necessary  exertion,  and 
to  endure  any  necessary  sacrifice.  It  may  prepare 
the  way  for  doing  and  for  suffering,  if  we  point  out 


74  THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

the  needs  be  for  exertion,  and  the  incidental  exposure 
to  suffering. 

A  man  can  make  nothing  of  suitable  conversation 
about  Jesus,  who  is  unwilling  that  his  whole  soul  shall 
be  roused  to  meet  the  demand  put  by  the  Holy  Ghost 
into  the  mouth  of  Paul  ;  "I  beseech  you,  therefore, 
brethren,  by  the  mercies  of  God,  that  ye  present  your 
bodies  a  living  sacrifice,  holy,  acceptable  unto  God, 
which  is  your  reasonable  service ;  and  be  not  con- 
formed to  this  world,  but  be  ye  transformed  by  the 
renewing  of  your  mind."  The  man  who  is  not  dis- 
posed to  find  the  will  of  God  good,  acceptable,  and 
every  way  perfect ;  who  cannot  say,  "  I  delight  to  do 
thy  will,  O  God ;  yea,  thy  law  is  within  my  heart ;  " 
cannot  make  very  much  even  of  talk  about  Jesus. 
The  first  demand  and  indispensable  necessity,  too,  is 
for  self-sacrifice.  Jesus  must  reign  in  a  man's  soul 
before  he  can  know  Him,  and  the  man  must  know 
Him  before  he  can  talk  about  Him. 

But  to  know  Jesus  a  man  must  drink  of  his  cup, 
and  be  baptized  with  His  baptism.  Jesus  has  prom- 
ised to  send  the  Holy  Ghost  to  educate  him,  and  his 
tuition  includes  the  cup  and  the  baptism.  Every 
disciple  has  a  suspicion  —  a  glimmering,  or  it  may  be 
more  —  of  this  ;  and,  alas  !  when  the  threatened  cup 
comes  to  the  lips,  almost  all  of  the  disciples  forsake 
him  and  fly. 

"  You  can't  believe  this  ;  you  can't  see  it  so  ? " 

Perhaps  I  can  assist  you  to  see  it.  Listen  to  Jesus. 
"  And  He  said  unto  them,  go  ye  into  all  the  world, 


RELIGIOUS    CONVERSATION.  75 

and  preach  the  Gospel  to  every  creature."  What  do 
you  say  to  this  ? 

"  Oh,  if  I  were  only  a  capable  preacher,  I  should 
rejoice  to  do  so." 

But  Christ  was  not  speaking  to  capable  preachers ; 
quite  otherwise.  He  was  speaking  to  the  rank  and 
file   of   the    Gospel    army ;    and   he   bade  them   all 

go- 

"  But  you  surely  do  not  mean  to  deny  that  our  cir- 
cumstances are  very  different  from  theirs ;  and  that 
a  competent  preacher  now  needs  a  very  different, 
and  a  much  more  elaborate,  education  ? " 

I  don't  mean  to  deny  anything  that  is  true.  But 
as  Jesus  was  not  speaking  to  ordained  and  highly 
educated  men,  no  more  am  I.  I  am  but  echoing  His 
Command,  Go !  go  one,  go  all,  and  speak  for  and  of 
your  Master,  go  now.  Deliver  your  message  with- 
out elaboration,  simply,  earnestly,  affectionately,  as 
one  filled  with  the  love  of  the  Master.  Have  you 
any  doubt  of  willing  and  attentive  ears .''  I  don't 
believe  you  have.  Why,  then,  do  you  not  go  and 
talk  of  Jesus  to  all  within  your  reach  ? 

"  Oh,  I  have  n't  the  gift.  It 's  a  rare  gift,  and  I 
never  possessed  it." 

Did  you  ever  acquire  any  language  without  grap- 
pling with  the  alphabet,  monosyllables,  dissyllables, 
and  polysyllables  ?  Have  you  ever  strengthened  any 
of  your  muscles  by  total  disuse  ? 

"  Oh,  but  I  have  made  some  efforts  in  conversa- 
tion ;  enough  to  satisfy  me  that  that  is  not  my  line. 


"^6  THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

My  forte  lies  in  the  carefully  prepared  written  pro- 
duction. It  is  a  great  matter — this  matter  of  relig- 
ion ;  a  very  serious  matter  indeed.  I  would  not 
trust  myself  to  give  utterance  to  my  sentiments  in  a 
crude  and  ill-digested  form.  If  I  am  ever  to  do  any- 
thing to  save  the  souls  of  men,  I  must  hold  my  mind 
free  from  exciting  circumstances,  and  guard  against 
those  unexpected  surprises  to  which  all  free  speech, 
and  particularly  colloquial  speech,  is  liable." 

In  short,  you  think  it  best  to  keep  within  your  en- 
trenchments, and  fight  from  these.  Rifled  cannon  of 
very  long  range  are  your  favorite  weapons,  it  would 
seem.  And  you  will,  I  have  no  doubt,  find  your 
experience  foreshadowed  in  that  of  our  military  men, 
who  report  that  an  immense  number  of  such  shots  hit 
nothing  but  the  earth.  No,  my  dear  friend,  you  de- 
ceive yourself,  I  care  not  what  your  gifts  may  or  may 
not  be  ;  if  you  do  not,  and  will  not  take  the  necessary 
pains  to  cultivate  the  precious  power  of  conversation, 
you  must  be  prepared  some  day  to  face  the  painful 
discovery  that  you  buried  at  least  one  talent  for 
which  you  must  account  to  God,  because  you  were 
either  indolent  or  ashamed  of  Jesus.  Be  not  de- 
ceived. Pretexts  for  avoiding  this  cross  to  self-love 
come  to  us  in  forms  so  plausible  as  to  deceive  the 
very  elect.  The  devil  arrays  these  excuses  in  gar- 
ments of  light ;  for  he  knows  well  the  power  of  close, 
friendly,  personal  conversation,  and  fears  it  far  more 
than  he  fears  the  influence  of  most  sermons.  A  plea 
for  Jesus,  enforced  by  all  the  pathos  of  a  warm- 


RELIGIOUS    CONVERSATION.  7/ 

hearted  love  to  God  and  man  is  something  which  he 
finds  it  very  difficult  to  arrest ;  and  he,  therefore, 
does  all  in  his  power  to  multiply  and  to  exaggerate 
hinderances  to  the  performance  of  this  duty.  In 
every  one  of  our  congregations  there  may  be  found 
at  all  times  persons  who  are  willing,  and  even  hoping, 
to  be  spoken  with  about  Jesus;  about  His  tender  in- 
terest in  their  souls,  His  desire  for  their  regenera- 
tion, and  His  willingness  to  take  them  into  His  ser- 
vice, and  pay  them  glorious  wages. 

My  friend,  are  you  doing  what  you  can  ?  Do  not  say 
"  I  am  not  a  clergyman  ;  this  is  the  peculiar  province 
of  a  clergyman."  If  you  are  a  disciple  ;  if  you  have 
heard  of  Jesus  and  believed  on  Him,  you  have  been 
adopted  into  his  family.  You  have  become  His  ser- 
vant ;  you  are  made  a  minister ;  you  are  commis- 
sioned by  our  Lord  himself  to  talk  of  Him.  A  disci- 
ple is  a  learner :  and  our  Lord's  school  is  the  great 
original  of  the  "  mutual  system ;  "  as  a  learner  you 
are  required  to  be  also  a  teacher;  the  unalterable 
condition  and  requirement  of  His  school  is,  teach 
what  you  learn  as  fast  as  you  learn  it,  and  you  shall 
be  advanced  daily  and  hourly. 

Do  not  say,  "  I  am  a  preacher,  and  the  expecta- 
tions of  the  people  nowadays  are  such  that  it  is  im- 
possible for  me  to  find  time  for  much  conversation. 
The  weekly  discourses  expected  of  me  leave  me  no 
such  time.  I  am  always  to  be  found  in  my  study  at 
proper  hours,  and  those  who  desire  conversation 
should  come  to  me."     There  is  not  a  question  that 


yS  THE   CHRISTIAN   MINISTRY. 

you  sincerely  desire  to  convert  and  instruct  your 
people  ;  the  simple  question  is,  will  preaching  only 
do  it?  And  as  to  their  expectations  from  the  pulpit, 
let  them  be  taught  that  "  one  is  your  Master,  even 
Christ ; "  and  that  all  other  expectations  must  be 
subordinated  to  the  Master's ;  and  his  expectation  is, 
that  you  will  find  the  lost  lambs  and  sheep,  and  bring 
them  to  Him.  Serve  a  written  notice,  if  you  will,  on 
all  you  find  within  the  church  walls.  If  they  respond 
to  the  summons,  so  far  so  good ;  but  are  there  not 
many  in  your  parish  of  whom,  if  not  sought  else- 
where, you  would  be  obliged  to  make  return  "not 
found."  Do  not  allow  yourself  even  to  attempt  to 
make  out  a  valid  excuse  and  exemption  from  this 
duty  and  privilege.  Suppose  you  should  succeed  in 
persuading  3^ourself  and  others  that  you  have  not  the 
privilege  of  doing  much,  or  anything  at  all,  in  the  use 
of  religious  conversation ;  what  will  you  have  done  ? 
Nay,  go  farther,  and  suppose  that  you  obtain  exemp- 
tion from  the  Lord  ;  what  then  ?  Why,  then  you  wdll 
have  obtained  permission  to  prefer  your  will  to  His  ; 
you  will  have  received  "  your  request,  and  leanness 
into  your  soul ; "  the  best  portion  of  your  Lord's 
vineyard  in  your  soul,  the  flower-garden  of  the  heart, 
will  be  uncultivated ;  you  will  have  no  community  of 
experience  with  our  Lord  in  those  yearnings  of  soul 
which  are  prompted  by  an  intimate  acquaintance  with 
the  interior  life  of  his  lambs  and  sheep ;  it  will  never 
be  said  of  you,  as  it  should  be  said  of  every  faithful 
shepherd,  "  when  he  putteth  forth  his  own  sheep,  he 


RELIGIOUS    CONVERSATION.  79 

goeth  before  them,  and  the  sheep  follow  him  ;  for 
they  know  his  voice." 

The  truth  is,  self-love  entices  the  most  of  us  to 
avoid  faithful  religious  conversation.  We  would  be 
on  friendly  terms  with  all ;  they  may  like  us  less  if 
we  venture  on  this.  "  What  will  they  think  of  me  !  " 
we  exclaim.  No  matter  what  they  "  think  of  me ;  " 
the  question  of  real  moment  is,  what  will  they  think 
of  Jesus  ?  And  the  prayer  of  no  less  importance  is, 
"  Lord,  strengthen  me  to  speak  for  thee,  and  give  me 
grace  to  speak  wisely.  Holy  Ghost,  dwelling  in  me, 
show  me  the  things  of  Christ  so  that  I  may  hold  them 
up  to  this  immortal  soul." 


V. 


SELF-POSSESSION. 

""VTES,"  said  an  aged  minister  of  the  gospel,  "I 
-»-  have  often  been  blamed  that  I  did  not,  while 
preaching,  look  my  people  in  the  face ;  but  I  could 
not  do  it ;  with  my  nervous  temperament  it  was  a 
thing  impossible ;  the  attempt  to  do  it  would  pro- 
duce a  flutter  that  quite  disabled  and  unfitted  me  to 
go  on  with  my  sermon." 

It  certainly  might  be  rash  to  affirm  that  every  one 
thus  destitute  of  self-possession  has  and  can  have  no 
call  to  the  Christian  Ministry ;  but  it  may  be  both 
wise  and  kind  to  propose  a  thought  or  two  for  the 
consideration  of  every  such  candidate ;  to  say  to 
him,  "Thou  knowest,  brother,  that  on  this  continent, 
more  than  upon  any  other,  the  circumstances  of  the 
people  have  combined  to  make  them  intolerant  of 
indirection  in  any  and  every  form.  Preambles  from 
presiding  chairmen  in  public  meetings  are  endured 
with  irritation  and  impatience.  So  of  circuitous 
approaches  to  the  theme  of  any  teacher,  preacher,  or 
lecturer ;  the  countenance  of  many  a  listener  says  to 
80 


SELF-POSSESSION.  8 1 

him  who  has  eyes  to  see,  '  Tell  us  what  you  would  be 
at !  If  you  have  a  definite  thing  to  say,  say  it. 
Please  understand,  that  the  old  time  submission 
to  the  cloth  and  bands  has  passed  away.  We  make 
small  account  of  your  B.A.'s  and  your  M.A.'s,  and 
little  of  your  Ph.D.'s.  Have  you  anything  from  your 
own  experience  to  recommend  as  being  of  vital 
importance  ? ' " 

"You  think  you  have. 

"  Well,  go  on ;  we  will  judge  of  that ;  it's  soon 
seen;  we  have  a  sure  test,  and  easily  applied;  a 
living  theme  will  speedily  emancipate  its  advocate 
from  all  embarrassing  self-consciousness." 

If  this  is  true  in  a  general  way,  as  it  surely  is, 
incomparably  more  true  is  it  of  him  who  has  any 
proper  sense  of  being  "  a  servant  of  Jesus  Christ, 
called  to  be  an  apostle,  separated  unto  the  Gospel  of 
God."  The  true  call  of  God  so  magnifies  His  Son, 
as  to  dwarf  every  person  and  thing  that  exalteth 
itself.  He  who  is  truly  called  of  God,  is  so  called 
out  of  himself  as  to  leave  full  and  exclusive  posses- 
sion of  the  temple  to  the  Comforter,  the  Holy  Ghost. 
He  who  has  worthily  received  the  Holy  Ghost  is  con- 
scious of  it,  knowing  that  he  himself  no  longer  lives, 
but  Christ  lives  in  him.  Once  aware  of  this,  his  delight 
is,  that  through  him  Christ  will  reveal  Himself  to 
men.  This  man  knows  himself  empowered  to  speak 
for  Jesus,  and  so  empowered  to  say,  "  My  message  is 
not  mine,  but  His  that  sent  me."  This  conscious- 
ness casts  out  all  fear  of  man.     But  some  will  say, 


82  THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

this  consciousness  of  the  indwelHng  of  the  Comforter 
is  not  so  common  as  you  would  make  it  appear.  I 
have  known  many  ministers  in  my  time,  and  very 
seldom  have  I  known  one  who  could  or  would  assure 
me  that  he  had  any  such  consciousness ;  indeed,  the 
most  of  whom  I  have  known  have  held  it  for  certain 
that  the  claim  to  any  such  confidence  was  a  bad 
sign,  significant  of  self-righteousness,  and,  probably, 
of  hypocrisy. 

But,  my  dear  friend,  can  you  possibly  agree  with 
them  in  this  ?  Are  you  really  in  doubt  if  there  is 
any  genuine  communion  and  fellowship  with  the 
Father  and  with  His  Son,  Jesus  Christ  ?  and  that  in 
face  of  our  Lord's  declaration,  "  At  that  day  ye  shall 
know  that  I  am  in  my  Father,  and  ye  in  me,  and  I 
in  you  ? "  and  in  face  of  St.  Paul's  demand  :  "  Know 
ye  not  your  own  selves,  how  that  Jesus  Christ  is  in 
you,  except  ye  be  reprobates?  "  If  it  be  certain,  as 
it  surely  is,  that  even  private  Christians  may  and 
ought  to  know  themselves  to  be  unquestionably  the 
temples  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  how  much  more  certainly 
should  every  man  who  takes  upon  him  the  ministry 
of  Christ,  know  that  he  is  both  called  and  commis- 
sioned of  God  to  declare  His  Word.  It  may  there- 
fore most  reasonably  be  questioned  if  any  man  is 
called  of  God  to  be  His  minister  who  cannot  and 
who  does  not  absolutely  hide  himself  behind  his 
Lord ;  who  cannot  therefore  truly  say,  "  It  is  not  I 
that  speak,  but  Christ  in  me ;  by  whom  I  am  cruci- 
fied unto  the  world,  and  the  world  unto  me." 


SELF-POSSESSION.  83 

And  what  hinders  that  every  minister  of  God 
should  so  speak  to-day  and  every  day?  Nothing 
but  the  lack  of  thorough  consecration.  The  fact 
speaks  for  itself  ;  the  man  who  truly  and  thoroughly 
consecrates  himself  to  Christ,  is  necessarily  and 
inevitably  emancipated  from  himself  in  the  very 
act.  It  is  only  a  partial  consecration  that  leaves  a 
swarm  of  disenabling  doubts  behind.  The  man  who 
fully  receives  the  Holy  Ghost  as  his  Comforter  and 
guide,  must  and  will,  and  does  in  fact,  cast  himself 
on  Him  for  constant  support  and  guidance.  Con- 
scious of  this  fact,  he  is  once  and  forever  emanci- 
pated from  the  fear  of  man,  and  from  dependence  on 
his  own  resources.  He  is  ever  saying  and  feeling, 
"  In  the  Lord  Jehovah  is  everlasting  strength ;  " 
He  will  never  leave  me  nor  forsake  me."  The 
God-appointed  minister  must  and  will  have  perfect 
self-possession;  which  is  only  saying,  that  having 
promptly  and  gratefully  accepted,  and  diligently 
used  what  God  has  given,  he  is  emancipated  from 
all  bondage,  and  can  freely  cast  himself  upon  the 
present  help  of  the  Comforter  to  deliver  his  message 
from  the  Lord.  The  real  secret  of  comparative  lack 
of  usefulness,  is,  that  almost  none  of  those  who  call 
themselves  ministers  of  God  look  to,  and  depend 
upon,  the  Holy  Ghost  for  guidance,  and  for  inspira- 
tion.    "Them  that  honor  me,  will  I  honor." 

There  is  a  self-possession  infinitely  removed  from 
self-complacency,  from  all  conceit,  from  thinking  of 
one's  self  more  highly  than  we  ought  to  think,  in 


§4  THE   CHRISTIAN   MINISTRY. 

short,  from  thinking  of  one's  self  at  all.  It  comes 
of  being  filled  with  the  Spirit,  from  the  realized  in- 
dwelling of  the  Comforter,  from  the  consciousness 
of  entirely  honest  relations  to  our  beloved,  honored 
Lord,  from  supreme  and  undivided  concern  in  every- 
thing to  please  Him.  There  may  be  good  logic, 
good  rhetoric,  large  stores  of  knowledge  in  many 
fields,  adapted  in  all  simply  natural  ways  to  influ- 
ence men  ;  there  may  be  fine  imagination,  affluence 
of  imagery,  pure  taste,  great  felicity  of  illustration, 
aptitude  and  tact  in  the  use  of  these  precious  posses- 
sions, and,  withal,  large  experience  in  intercourse 
with  very  various  persons,  all  stopping  short,  far 
short  of  the  largest  power  to  persuade  and  benefit 
men,  because  of  failing  to  subordinate  all  these  to 
the  inspiration,  guidance,  and  entire  control  of  the 
indwelling  Comforter.  It  is  only  the  man  who  thus 
intelligently  and  decisively  places  himself  and  all  he 
has,  is,  and  can  become,  at  the  disposal  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,  who  can  have  a  well-grounded  expectation  of 
reaching  what  our  Lord  proposes  to  him,  and  the 
efficiency  he  desires  to  give  him.  That  consummate 
felicity,  I  must  believe,  is  inseparable  from  a  certain 
poise  of  soul  which  may  not  improperly  be  character- 
ized as  the  rest  of  faith.  Have  you  not  sometimes 
seen  a  beautiful  and  swift-winged  bird  assuming  to 
poise  himself  upon  a  slender  stalk  of  grain,  buoyant, 
jubilant,  and  every  whit  alive  ?  What  holds  him 
thus  exalted,  and  fascinating  the  eye  of  the  beholder.? 
It  is  not  the  stalk  of  grain ;  it  could  not  bear  his 


SELF-POSSESSION.  85 

weight;  it  is  not  the  delicate  and  vigorous  wings 
alone ;  it  is  the  will  of  God,  sweetly  co-ordinating  all 
laws  within  and  without,  that  regulate  and  modify 
the  buoyant  and  beautiful  life.  To  the  speaker  thus 
poised  upon  the  will  of  God,  thus  nourished  by  the 
heart  of  God,  there  is  given  a  transcendent  power  to 
instruct  and  nourish  those  to  whom  he  is  divinely 
sent.  Through  this  ministration  of  the  Comforter 
there  comes  in  the  same  instant  a  double  benedic- 
tion to  the  speaker  thus  emancipated  from  himself, 
and  so  enabled  to  become  in  very  deed  an  ambassa- 
dor for  Christ ;  and  to  the  hearer,  in  that  he  gets  a 
like  emancipation  from  man,  and  so  hears  not  the 
ambassador  but  the  Lord  Himself.  Speaking  thus, 
the  preacher  is  enabled  to  look  into  the  eyes,  and 
yet  more,  into  the  very  heart  of  him  to  whom  he  is 
speaking. 


VI. 

MINISTERIAL   CULTURE. 

THE  address  of  Professor  Phelps  on  Ministerial 
Culture  is  the  mature  thought  of  an  unselfish 
seeker  for  truth,  on  the  question  of  our  time.  It 
embodies  the  conclusions  of  one  who  has  merited 
and  has  won  the  affectionate  confidence  and  the 
high  respect  of  all  Christians.  It,  therefore,  de- 
serves very  thoughtful  and  very  prayerful  considera- 
tion. 

His  opening  statement  is,  "  The  ideal  of  a  preacher 
which  I  have  uniformly  had  in  view,  is  that  of  a 
scholar,  using  his  scholarship  with  the  aim  of  an 
orator." 

To  this  ideal  I  most  respectfully  object ;  not  be- 
cause it  is  wrong  in  itself ;  not  that  it  may  not  be 
right,  in  the  place  it  holds  in  the  Professor's  own  in- 
tellectual and  spiritual  life.  But  that  which  is  not 
wrong  in  itself,  may  be  wrong  in  the  position  as- 
signed to  it.  The  ideal  under  consideration,  is  made 
the  central  object  in  a  picture  in  which  it  should  have 
its  place  among  the  accessories.  Scholarship  and 
86 


MINISTERIAL    CULTURE.  8/ 

oratory  are  permitted,  first,  to  usurp  the  place  of  in- 
tense sympathy  with  God  ;  and  also,  second,  to  occupy 
the  place  of  intense  humanity,  the  man  yearning  over 
men,  with  an  irresistible  solicitude  to  save  and  to 
elevate.  Finally,  the  indwelling  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
the  source  of  all  power  in  'the  preacher,  is  not  even 
mentioned.  That  there  is  in  his  own  apprehension, 
something  amiss,  either  with  his  ideal,  or  with  the 
position  assigned  to  it,  is  apparent,  for,  "  alongside  of 
the  conviction"  that  this  ideal  is  the  true  one,  "he 
finds  another  conviction,  also  deepening  with  years," 
namely,  "  that  our  Protestant  denominations,  are  not, 
in  all  respects,  using  this  theory  of  high  culture  in 
the  ministry,  in  a  Christian  way.  Somehow  or  other, 
it  is  not  working  altogether  right  in  practice.  A 
scholarly  ministry,  taken  as  a  whole,  we  must  confess, 
is  working  away  from  the  unscholarly  masses  of  the 
people."  The  confession  might  be  enlarged,  and  be 
no  less  true ;  for  the  ministry  is  working  away  from 
many  who  can  hardly  be  called  "  the  unscholarly." 
No  one,  I  am  sure,  can  deprecate  this  result  more 
sincerely,  or  more  sorrowfully,  than  Professor  Phelps. 
He  says,  ''If  I  could  be  persuaded  that  the  theory 
of  ministerial  culture  which  I  have  tried  to  represent 
to  you,  could  result  legitimately,  in  any  such  drifting 
asunder  of  the  pulpit,  and  the  lower  orders  of  society, 
I  would  abandon  the  whole  of  it.  I  would  drop  it  as 
I  would  a  viper." 

This  I  entirely  believe.      That   Professor  Phelps 
desires,  before  all  other  things,  to  honor  God,  in  the 


SB  THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

conversion  and  highest  spiritual  improvement  of  men, 
does  not  admit  of  a  doubt.  On  this  very  account,  I 
am  the  more  concerned  to  show  that  his  ideal,  care- 
fully as  he  has  endeavored  to  guard  it,  is  not  above 
the  suspicion  of  procuring  the  very  evil  he  depre- 
cates. 

I  heartily  concur  in  his  remark,  "  It  is  inconceiv- 
able to  me  how  any  educated  man  can  see  relief 
from  our  present  dangers,  or  from  any  dangers,  in 
the  direction  of  less  education.  Ignorance  is  a 
remedy  for  nothing."  No  less  truly  does  he  declare, 
"  The  cry  should  be,  not  Less  intellect !  Less  study  ! 
Less  culture  !  "  but  simply,  "  More  heart !  More 
prayer !  More  godliness  !  More  subjection  of  culture 
to  the  salvation  of  those  who  have  little  or  none  of  it !  " 
But  this  last  cry  comes  late ;  for  in  reading  the  Profes- 
sor's statement  of  his  ideal,  my  first  feeling  was  of 
missing  the  divine  spirituality,  the  superhuman  en- 
ergy, the  heavenly  fire,  of  an  earlier  teacher,  who  thus 
expresses  his  ideal,  in  his  prayer  for  the  Ephesian 
Christians,  "  That  he  would  grant  you  according  to 
the  riches  of  his  glory,  to  be  strengthened  with  might 
by  his  Spirit,  in  the  inner  man  ;  that  Christ  may 
dwell  in  your  hearts  by  faith ;  that  ye  being  rooted 
and  grounded  in  love,  may  be  able  to  comprehend 
with  all  saints,  what  is  the  breadth,  and  length,  and 
depth,  and  height,  and  to  know  the  love  of  Christ, 
which  passeth  knowledge,  that  ye  might  be  filled  with 
all  the  fulness  of  God." 

Here   is  strength   supplied   by  the   Holy  Ghost; 


MINISTERIAL    CULTURE,  89 

abounding  strength  ;  measureless  and  glorious  as  the 
inexhaustible  riches  of  God.  Here  is  the  indwelling 
Christ;  infusing  and  diffusing  love  through  all  the 
soul,  making  man  capacious  through  his  affections. 
Says  Pascal,  "God  has  designed  that  divine  truths 
should  pass  from  the  heart  into  the  head  ;  and  not 
from  the  head  into  the  heart ;  and  so,  as  it  is  neces- 
sary to  know  human  things,  in  order  to  love  them  ;  it 
is  necessary  to  love  divine  things,  in  order  to  know 
them."  The  education  of  candidates  for  the  minis- 
try ought  to  be  shaped  upon  this  truth.  Professor 
Phelps  deprecates  as  earnestly  as  any  one,  the  over- 
shadowing of  the  spiritual  life  by  giving  any  undue 
prominence  to  the  intellectual ;  but  however  just  his 
intentions,  our  university  system  is  too  strong  for 
him.  It  makes  the  men  in  its  own  image  before  it 
delivers  them  to  him.  It  turns  over  to  him  Greeks 
and  Romans.  Men  reared  in  the  atmosphere  of  the 
ancients  do  not  commonly  acquire  that  vigor  of 
Christian  life,  which  characterized  the  great  apostle 
to  the  Gentiles,  and  his  fellow-helpers.  The  high 
culture  of  the  universities  has  been  carried  to  that 
extreme,  that  it  leaves  neither  leisure,  nor  vigor,  for 
proficiency  in  any  channel  but  its  own.  It  is  time 
we  had  a  system  of  education  for  the  ministry  that 
does  not  offer  continuous  temptation  to  self-seeking, 
and  to  a  separation  from  the  uncultured  and  the  rude, 
which  many  men  do  not  overcome.  Admit  that  in 
the  history  of  Greece  and  Rome,  fitting  occasions 
demanded  the  orations  of  Demosthenes  and  Cicero ; 


90  THE   CHRISTIAN   MINISTRY. 

admit  that  in  the  history  of  the  Church  of  Christ 
there  are  occasions  demanding  sermons  containing 
every  element  of  power  which  scholarship  and  elo- 
quence can  supply.  Such  have  been  the  sermons  of 
Chalmers,  Hall,  Edwards,  Griffin,  Taylor,  Beecher, 
and  others.  Crises  have  called  for  such  sermons  in 
the  past ;  crises  will  call  for  such  sermons  again. 
But  the  ordinary  wants  of  the  masses  do  not  call  for 
orations ;  nor  do  they  call  for  preachers  using  schol- 
arship with  the  aim  of  an  orator.  They  call  for  a 
man  who,  above  and  beyond  all  beside,  is  a  servant 
of  Jesus  Christ,  by  the  will  of  God  ;  separated  unto 
the  Gospel ;  filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost;  fervent  and 
irrepressible  ;  one  who  has  a  passion  ior  saving  souls  ; 
and  an  aptitude  for  training  every  member  of  his 
flock  to  be  his  fellow-helper  in  the  work ;  one  who 
values  scholarship  as  it  can  be  made  helpful  to  this 
one  object  of  his  life. 

Our  own  day  has  supplied  men  who  have  shown 
what  can  be  done  in  working  from  this  ideal. 
Richard  Knill,  John  Angell  James,  and  James  Sher- 
man found  no  gulf  between  themselves  and  the 
masses.  Neither  of  the  three  could  lay  claim  to 
"  scholarship,"  or  to  "  high  culture."  "  Usefulness," 
says  James,  "  was  from  the  commencement  the  con- 
trolling idea  of  my  ministry.  If  I  have  had  any  con- 
siderable influence  with  my  people,  it  has  come  very 
much  from  my  habit  of  showing  them  my  heart." 
It  was  the  same  with  Knill ;  he  wept  over  a  brutal 
soldier  who  cursed  him  for  distributing  tracts  to  his 


MINISTERIAL    CULTURE.  QT 

regiment,  and  his  weeping  brought  the  man  to  re- 
pentance. While  he  yet  lived,  one  hundred  of  his 
spiritual  children  had  entered  the  ministr}'.  The 
tears  running  down  the  cheeks  of  Sherman  melted 
a  total  neglecter  of  worship  who  chanced  to  step  into 
his  church ;  and  hundreds  were  won  by  his  loving 
spirit,  beaming  in  his  face.  "  Wherever  he  came  his 
presence  was  sunshine,"  though  "there  was  a  tear 
in  his  voice."  In  short  he  was  intensely  and  ten- 
derly human  and  sympathetic.  Eighty-four  persons 
united  with  Surrey  Chapel  who  referred  their  conver- 
sion to  one  sermon.  Eighty  persons  at  Reading 
were  believed  to  have  been  converted  by  another 
sermon.  All  men  cannot  be  eminent  scholars.  Not 
many  men  give  sure  evidence  that  their  gift  is  to  use 
their  scholarship  with  the  aim  of  an  orator.  But 
each  man  can,  first,  stir  up  the  gift  which  is  in  him ; 
second,  can  consecrate  what  he  receives ;  third,  can 
receive  immensely  —  ay,  he  can  be ,  a  temple  filled 
with  the  Holy  Ghost,  if  he  makes  no  Dagon  of  his 
scholarship ;  and  fourth,  shall  I  say,  above  alU  —  if 
he  will  cultivate  his  affections  ;  the  great,  conspicu- 
ous want,  both  in  and  out  of  the  pulpit,  in  our  day ; 
fifth,  if  he  will  secure  the  largest  baptism  of  love  and 
vvill  share  it  with  all  within  his  reach.  The  people 
will  fully  appreciate  all  the  scholarship  which  is 
thoroughly  subordinated  to  the  service  of  the  Master ; 
but  high  culture  is  not  the  vital  bond  of  union  be- 
tween pastor  and  people.  As  Sherman  says,  "they 
are  jealous  for  the  Lord  of  Hosts,  lest  talent  should 


92  THE   CHRISTIAN   MINISTRY. 

be  exalted  above  godliness."  They  crave  the  heart- 
yearning  tenderness,  and  the  joyousness  of  one  who 
has  been  much  forgiven  and  knows  it.  Scholarship  ! 
for  one  who  would  see  Jesus  !  If  he  ask  bread,  will 
you  give  him  a  stone  ? 

No  man  is  more  mindful  of  all  seemly  culture  than 
Paul ;  but  somehow  the  culture  he  presses  has  another 
savor  than  that  most  often  commended  in  our  day. 
To  the  Romans  he  writes,  "  I  long  to  see  you,  that  I 
may  impart  unto  you  some  spiritual  gift,  to  the  end  ye 
may  be  established  ;  that  is  that  I  may  be  comforted 
together  with  you  by  the  mutual  faith  both  of  you 
and  me."  To  the  Colossians  he  writes,  "  Since  the 
day  we  heard  of  your  love  in  the  Spirit,  we  do  not 
cease  to  pray  for  you,  and  to  desire  that  ye  might  be 
filled  with  the  knowledge  of  his  will  in  all  wisdom 
and  spiritual  understanding ;  that  ye  might  walk 
worthy  of  the  Lord  unto  all  pleasing,  being  fruitful 
in  every  good  work,  and  increasing  in  the  knowledge 
of  God."  To  the  Ephesians  he  writes,  "Wherefore 
take  unto  you  the  whole  armor  of  God."  This  was 
his  language  to  his  fellow-helpers. 

Here  is  the  culture  most  needed  ;  and  this  we  may 
affirm  has  lost  none  of  its  transcendent  power  to 
persuade  men.  Scholastic  culture  has  suffered  great 
abatement  of  its  power  from  the  changes  wrought  in 
our  times.  Our  university  system  is  flagrantly  out  of 
harmony  with  the  wants  of  the  hour.  The  most  that 
can  be  claimed  for  it  is  that  it  offers  to  develop  in- 
tellectual powers,  which  when   developed,   provided 


MINISTERIAL    CULTURE.  93 

the  heart  for  it  survives  the  process,  can  be  turned  to 
account  in  the  pulpit.  As  to  the  affections,  if  they 
have  vigor  enough  to  survive  ten  or  fifteen  years' 
disuse,  it  permits  them  to  exist.  Can  a  sane  man 
beUeve  that  this  system,  controlling  its  pupils  from 
ten  till  twenty-five,  will  leave  unimpaired  that  free, 
vigorous,  spiritual  life  which  in  Paul  breaks  out  thus, 
"  For  God  is  my  record,  how  greatly  I  long  after  you 
all  in  the  bowels  of  Jesus  Christ."  "  My  little  chil- 
dren, of  whom  I  travail  in  birth  again  until  Christ  be 
found  in  you."  "  I  have  great  heaviness  and  con- 
tinual sorrow  in  my  heart.  For  I  could  wish  that 
myself  were  accursed  from  Christ,  for  my  brethren, 
my  kinsmen  according  to  the  flesh." 

Now  this  is  something  more  than  the  ideal  of  a 
scholar  using  his  scholarship  with  the  aim  of  an 
orator.  And  we  have  no  fear  for  such  a  man,  but 
that,  with  great  pains-taking,  he  will  gather  in  all  the 
treasures  of  wisdom  and  knowledge  which  he  can 
make  auxiliary  to  the  conversion  and  improvement  of 
men.  And  we  are  sure  that  he  will  not  hold  books 
so  near  his  eyes  as  to  exclude  from  sight  and  sym- 
pathy all  the  world  beside. 

"  I  have  yet  to  find,"  says  the  Professor,  "  the  first 
layman  who  wants  any  other  than  the  first  order  of 
intellect  and  the  most  perfect  culture  in  his  pastor." 

True ;  but  we  want  the  first  order  of  heart  too  ; 
and  in  order  to  that,  we  want  the  evident  and  abun- 
dant anointing  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  Is  it  not  notori- 
ously and  alarmingly  true  that  our  congregations  are 


94  THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

learning  to  accept  intellectual  exhibitions  containing 
a  very  small  admixture  of  piety?  Our  urgent  need 
is,  of  a  style  of  man  whose  life  is  a  pure  river  of 
water  of  life,  clear  as  crystal,  proceeding  less  obvi- 
ously from  Helicon  and  Parnassus,  than  from  the 
throne  of  God  and  the  Lamb. 

"  Somehow  or  other,  the  theory  of  high  culture  is 
not  working  altogether  right  in  jDractice.  Christian 
men  are  innocently  wondering  and  inquiring,  why  a 
less  proportion  of  the  uneducated  masses  (and  of  the 
educated)  of  American  birth  is  to  be  found  in  Cal- 
vinistic  churches  than  was  found  there  thirty  years 
ago." 

In  answer,  I  say  :  Nay,  my  brother ;  this  is  not 
the  inquiry  of  intelligent  Christian  men,  but  of  the 
ministry.  The  ministry  wonder  and  innocently  in- 
quire, why  the  people  are  growing  more  and  more  in- 
tolerant of  preaching  ?  Have  they  fallen  out  with 
culture  ?  Is  culture  of  mind,  of  heart,  of  manners, — 
is  universal  culture  less  esteemed  than  formerly  ?  O 
no !  it  is  not  that.  It  is  that  the  times  have  been 
making  earnest  men ;  live  men ;  men  sensible  of 
living  powers,  and  that  these  powers  are  entrusted  to 
them  for  use ;  men  constrained  and  determined  to 
invest  these  powers.  They  are  investing  them  in  all 
ways  productive  of  tangible  results.  When  they 
come  to  church  they  miss  this  intensity  of  life.  They 
ask  for  heartiness  like  that  to  which  they  are  used, 
and  in  place  of  it  get  only  intellectual  views.  The 
ministry  have  not  generally  comprehended  this,  and 


MINISTERIAL    CULTURE.  95 

SO  they  are  innocently  wondering  and  inquiring  where- 
unto  this  vast  organization  of  lay-laborers  is  to  grow  ? 
What  is  to  come  of  Sabbath  schools,  Mission  schools, 
Mission  chapels.  Young  Men's  Christian  Associa- 
tions, and  so  forth ;  wondering  why  "  they  either  leave 
the  clergy  out  of  the  question,  or  assign  them  to  a 
false  position." 

The  answer,  as  one  of  their  own  number  has  said, 
is  "  Because  the  ministry,  for  the  most  part,  are  firing 
from  the  stern,  and  bombarding  Nineveh  and  Jehosha- 
phat."  We  are  "  creating  vast  organizations  of  lay- 
labor  to  reach  the  masses  of  the  people  "  because  of 
the  admitted  fact  that  "  our  pulpit  as  suited  to  our 
own  wants  and  tastes  "  —  i.  e.  the  wants  and  tastes 
of  congregations  trained  to  glory  in  scholarship  and 
oratory  —  "  does  not  reach  them."  It  is  because 
some  of  those  who  once  thronged  the  house  of  God 
have  found  out  that  Christ's  work  is  their  work,  that 
they  will  no  longer  consent  to  yield  one-seventh  part 
of  this  productive  life  which  is  in  them,  this  creative 
vigor,  to  the  old  time  passivity,  to  the  condition  of 
suspended  animation  in  the  house  of  God,  out  of  mere 
deference  to  traditional  usage. 

The  phrase  "  My  hearers,"  falling  now  and  then 
upon  the  ear,  suggests  why  the  masses  avoid  the 
church.  This  is  a  positive  age.  The  people  are 
either  with  Christ  or  against  him.  They  are  more 
than  hearers,  or  less.  The  former  are  fellow-helpers. 
They  are  earnestly  co-operative,  and  choose  to  be 
so  considered.     Nor  do  they  consider  that  their  own 


96  THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

wants  and  tastes,  any  more  than  the  wants  and  tastes 
of  the  absentees,  are  met  by  the  exhibition  of  truth 
as  an  intellectual  treat.  They  want  to  see  men  con- 
verted to  God,  and  roused  to  assume  their  share  of 
life's  work.  It  is  in  no  small  degree  because  the 
ministry  as  a  whole  are  backward  to  recognize  this 
energy  of  the  age,  and  the  movement  of  the  Spirit, 
who  inspires  it,  that  "  they  are  working  away  from 
the  unscholarly  masses,"  and  also  from  those  who 
are  not  unscholarly. 

Professor  Phelps  says  truly,  that  "  no  preacher  can 
afford  to  be  a  mere  teacher  of  teachers,  reaching  the 
people  only  by  proxy."  He  refers  with  some  solici- 
tude to  the  young  men  of  the  Christian  Associations, 
as  seeming  inclined  to  leave  the  ministry  out  of  their 
Christian  endeavors.  To  this,  the  young  men  would 
promptly  reply  :  "  Nothing  could  be  further  from  our 
wish  than  to  leave  out  the  ordained  ministers  of 
Christ.  Most  earnestly  have  we  desired  their  effi- 
ci-^^ni-  co-operation,  but  we  have  made  the  same  dis- 
covery you  report,  namely,  that  '  Somehow  or  other, 
their  theory  of  high  culture  does  not  work  altogether 
right  in  practice.'  The  most  of  them  '  do  not  lift  the 
masses,'  —  not  even  individual  souls, —  '  they  simply 
soar  overhead.'  Holding  on  to  old  time  methods  of 
propounding  abstract  truth  in  high  style  they  cannot 
help  us  to  reach  the  masses,  to  whom  we  feel  that 
we  are  commissioned  to  say,  *  Come ! '  We  will  be 
the  last  to  ask  you  to  abate  a  jot  from  the  true  dig- 
nity of  the  minister  of  Christ ;   you  shall  be  most 


MINISTERIAL    CULTURE.  97 

welcome  to  enjoy  all  the  real  advantage  of  the  high- 
est scholarship,  culture,  and  oratory  ;  but  if  you  are 
to  be  a  power  in  our  day  you  must  both  learn  to 
speak  to  the  masses  in  the  language  of  their  thought 
and  feeling;  and  also  by  precept  and  example,  to 
teach  us  to  do  the  same." 

No  Church  can  be  a  strong  Church,  the  members 
of  which  go  from  Sunday  to  Sunday  to  hear  a  great 
sermon,  however  good  the  sermon,  and  however 
devoted  the  minister,  simply  to  sit  in  judgment  on 
the  sermon,  to  compare  it  with  some  former  sermon, 
to  admire  its  good  points,  and  to  extol  the  minister ; 
and  who,  when  some  tokens  of  good  appear,  get 
together  and  vote  that  he,  who  is  doing  all,  or  nearly 
all  that  is  done  to  save  souls,  shall  be  invited  to 
double  his  toil  and  preach  more  sermons ;  all  which 
is  the  natural  and  inevitable  result  of  shrinking  from 
educating  lay-teachers,  and  leaving  Church  members 
to  be  mere  passive  recipients.  The  feeling  of  the 
honestly  earnest  will  be  :  "  If  you  cannot  lay  out 
work  for  us,  and  co-operate  in  it  with  us,  you  must  par- 
don us,  but  we  are  bound  to  find  work  for  ourselves. 
We  are  constrained  to  cry  out  with  our  illustrious 
predecessor  in  the  apostleship,  and  week-day  worker 
on  tents,  'Woe  is  me,  if  I  preach  not  the  gospel !'" 

Again  and  again  under  the  influence  of  what  may 
be  called  the  high  culture  theory,  a  theory  of  saving 
the  world  by  the  preaching  of  the  few,  the  Churches 
have  come  near  to  death  from  inanition.  Had  not 
our  Lord  come  to  the  rescue  with  the  suggestion  of 


98  THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

Sabbath  Schools,  Missions,  Bible-work,  Tract-work, 
Christian  Associations  and  Conventions,  in  the  work- 
ing of  which  a  field  was  found  for  individual  Chris- 
tians, the  Churches  would  have  perished.  But, 
happily,  "  the  Son  of  man  is  as  a  man  taking  a  far 
journey,  who  left  his  house,  and  gave  authority  to  his 
servants,  and  to  every  man  his  work."  The  problem 
of  our  day  for  each  minister  of  Christ,  is  to  interpret 
the  Master's  commission  to  each  member  of  his 
flock. 

The  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  is  simply 
an  evolution  of  this  idea.  Long  experience  has 
shown  that  very  very  few  young  men  will  emerge 
from  the  overshadowing  of  their  elders  in  the  Church 
prayer-meeting.  In  younger  companionship  they  find 
encouragement ;  they  are  absolved  from  fear.  In 
the  Lord's  name,  and  for  his  sake,  let  every  minister 
of  Christ  encourage  them  to  develop  their  power  to 
work,  where  they  can,  so  they  only  develop  it ;  for 
when  developed  it  becomes  the  common  property  of 
all  believers. 

And  this  suggests  to  those  who  have  too  long 
limited  their  ministerial  office  and  influence  to  the 
one  channel  of  using  scholarship  with  the  aim  of  an 
orator,  how  they  may  acquire  larger  usefulness  than 
ever  before,  while  they  diminish  the  wear  and  tear  of 
mind  and  body.  First :  Let  them  hold  each  member 
of  their  flock  to  that  personal  service  which  friendly 
intercourse  will  reveal  as  being  this  work.  And, 
second,  let  those  who  have  hitherto  drawn  their  dis- 


MINISTERIAL    CULTURE.  99 

course  chiefly  from  the  domain  of  scholarship,  begin 
to  use  the  resources  of  a  loving  heart,  and  learn  to 
overcome  the  immemorial  reluctance  of  New  Eng- 
land Christians  to  show  their  heart-life  to  those  who 
are  starved  for  lack  of  Christian  sympathy.  When 
once  this  is  fairly  done,  "  Reformers  and  Statesmen 
will  be  "  less  "inclined  to  look  about  for  other  agen- 
cies than  those  of  the  Church  and  pulpit  to  elevate 
and  control"  not  only  "the  dangerous  classes,"  but 
all  classes.  Consider  the  victims  of  the  Papacy,  for 
example.  What  will  scholarship  do  for  them  ?  Love, 
outgushing,  heart-moving  love  would  save  them. 
When  this  love  shall  pervade  our  preaching,  "the 
secular  press"  will  no  longer  "speak  flippantly  of 
the  relations  of  the  Protestant  ministry  to  the 
masses." 

Dear  brethren  in  the  ministry,  and  soon  to  be  in 
the  ministry,  consider  these  things,  and  the  Lord 
give  you  heavenly  wisdom  in  dealing  with  them. 
"  For  a  great  door  and  effectual  is  opened  "  in  these 
latter  days  both  to  ministers  and  to  laymen,  "  and 
there  are  many  adversaries  "  and  work  enough,  and 
more  than  enough,  for  our  united  and  entirely  con- 
secrated resources. 


[In  1882,  Rev.  Dr.  Austin  Phelps  gave  to  the  press  his  admirable 
"  Books  and  Men  ; "  for  those  who  will  study  and  thoroughly  digest,  a 
treasury  of  most  felicitous  instruction  and  suggestion.  New  York : 
Charles  Scribner's  Sons.] 


VII. 

"I    WILL." 

TWO  short  words,  once  spoken  by  the  Son  of 
God,  full  of  instruction.  These  were  the  cir- 
cumstances :  "  There  came  a  leper  to  him,  beseech- 
ing him,  and  kneeling  down  to  him,  and  saying  unto 
him,  '  If  thou  wilt,  thou  canst  make  me  clean.'  "  No 
disease  more  terrible  than  leprosy ;  none  more  hope- 
less of  cure.  But  there  was  One  able  to  save.  He 
had  but  to  will,  and  it  was  done.  The  petition  was 
granted,  the  faith  rewarded ;  "  I  will,"  said  Jesus ; 
"  and  immediately  the  leprosy  was  cleansed." 

It  is  written  in  Genesis  i.  27,  "So  God  created 
man  in  his  own  image."  Within  the  sphere  which 
God  has  assigned  to  him,  man  has  a  power  of  will 
like  that  of  Jesus.  He  who  gave  this  power  of  will, 
gave  also  an  endless  succession  of  persuasives  to  use 
it  for  God  and  for  humanity. 

But  there  is  an  enemy  of  God  and  man,  who  also 
has  this  power  of  will ;  who  makes  it  the  business  of 
his   life   to   neutralize   the  Divine  persuasives,  and 


I   WILL.  lOI 

arrest  or  limit  man's  power  of  will.  He  is  a  cunning 
and  accomplished  enemy,  and  his  success  in  his  bad 
cause,  beyond  belief.  Not  a  man  has  he  failed  to 
entangle  in  his  snares  ;  most  men  he  holds  entangled 
all  their  life  ;  but  here  and  there  a  man  calls  mightily 
on  God  and  obtains  deliverance.  How  is  it  with  you, 
my  brother  ?  Have  you  learned  to  say,  I  will,  and 
to  do  it,  too  ?  There  are  some  memorable  examples 
on  record.  Joshua  was  such  an  one.  '"  As  for  me," 
he  said,  "  I  will  serve  the  Lord.''  The  young  princes 
in  Babylon,  Daniel  and  his  companions,  were  of  like 
spirit.  "  Be  it  known  unto  thee,  O  King,"  they  said 
to  Nebuchadnezzar,  "  that  we  will  not  serve  thy  gods, 
nor  worship  the  golden  image  which  thou  hast  set 
up."  So  spake  Peter  and  John  to  the  rulers  and 
elders,  and  scribes :  "  We  cannot  but  speak  the 
thing  which  we  have  seen  and  heard." 

Whether  you  are  of  this  type  of  man,  you  may 
soon  settle,  by  considering  how  you  meet  Satan's 
persuasives  to  conform  to  the  customs  of  his  vassals. 
Are  you  always  looking  about  for  plausible  excuses 
for  doing  as  others  do  ?  Or  are  you  filled  with  inex- 
orable determination  to  please  God  alone  ? 

A  great  multitude  of  those  who  call  themselves 
Christians  are  destitute  of  this  Divine  Will  which 
wrought  so  mightily  in  Jesus  and  his  faithful  ones. 
They  have  will  enough  for  earthly  acquisitions, 
money,  honor,  pleasure ;  but  very  little  will  for  dur- 
able riches  and  righteousness ;  plenty  of  will  as  re- 
gards their  ''rights,''  but  feeble  indeed  is  their  will 


102  THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

in  respect  to  their  privileges  ;  a  prompt  "  I  will,"  and 
"  I  won't,"  when  invited  to  self-indulgence,  or  to  self- 
denial  ;  but  a  dilatory  will  when  asked  for  earnest 
co-operation  in  some  movement  to  save  and  improve 
men. 

Be  not  deceived,  my  brother ;  God  is  not  mocked. 
Either  your  will  is  with  his  will,  and  like  his  will,  or 
it  is  with,  and  like,  Satan's  will.  You  cannot  serve 
two  antagonistic  masters.  Either  you  have  a  Christ- 
like will,  in  virtue  of  which  you  are  Godlike  and  sub- 
limely good ;  or  you  are  void  of  such  will,  and  have 
no  part  in  the  Jcingdom  of  Christ  and  of  God. 

There  need  be  no  obscurity,  no  doubtfulness  about 
this.  There  ought  to  be  none.  You  may  be  a  man 
of  very  moderate  powers,  but  all  the  powers  you  have 
may  be  tremendously  in  earnest  on  the  Lord's  side. 
If  you  will  keep  your  eye  single  in  and  for  his  service, 
your  whole  body,  mind,  and  heart,  may  hQ  full  of 
light.     Will  you  do  it  ? 

Here  is  a  short  catechism  with  which  to  examine 
yourself. 

1.  Do  I  love  the  Lord  with  all  my  heart,  soul, 
mind,  and  strength  ?  Do  I  show  this  by  instantly 
and  without  regret  sacrificing  whatever  comes  be- 
tween ? 

2.  Do  r  seek  first  the  kingdom  of  God  and  his 
righteousness  ? 

3.  Do  I  hunger  and  thirst  after  righteousness  ? 

4.  Do  I  count  all  things  but  loss  for  the  excel- 
lency of  the  knowledge  of  Christ  Jesus  my  Lord? 


1    WILL.  103 

Am  I  ready  to  take  the  loss  of   all  things  for  his 
sake  ? 

5.  Do  I  love  my  neighbor  as  myself  ?  and  in  all 
things  please  my  neighbor  for  his  good  to  edifica- 
tion ? 

6.  Am  I  careful  for  nothing,  but  to  please  Christ, 
and  have  I  learned  in  whatsoever  state  I  am,  to  be 
therewith  content  ? 

Finally,  If  I  must  say  No,  to  any  of  these  ques- 
tions, am  I  willing  and  resolved  to  will  as  Jesus 
wills  ?  and  to  say,  in  His  strength,  I  can  and  will  do 
all  things  ? 


VIII. 


THE   MINISTRY   OF    SALVATION. 


HARDLY  a  newspaper  comes  to  hand  but  one 
may  find  in  it  an  admonition  to  the  men  of 
the  world  to  be  wise  in  their  generation,  and  not  fall 
behind  the  exigencies  of  our  time.  Here  is  the  Lo?i- 
doti  Times  exhorting  Englishmen  to  take  heed,  lest 
like  Austria  they  should  be  vanquished  by  "  the  pro- 
gressive spirit  "  of  their  enterprising  neighbors,  who 
had  not  waited  for  a  precedent  before  availing 
themselves  of  a  magnetic  communication  with  every 
part  of  their  forces  ;  and  were  totally  indifferent  to 
any  who  sneered,  so  they  only  obtained  the  knowl- 
edge they  sought  by  sending  an  officer  to  recon- 
noitre from  a  balloon.  Upon  two  points  the  French 
meant  to  be  thoroughly  posted  :  upon  their  own  pre- 
cise condition  and  resources,  and  upon  the  position 
and  resources  of  those  upon  whom  they  were  to 
operate.  Knowing  these  points,  they  had  only  to 
set  in  motion  the  means  which  were  fitted  to  the 
ends  sought. 

104 


THE    MINISTRY    OF    SALVATION.  I05 

One  of  the  first  among  antiquated  notions,  of 
which  our  young  ministers  should  disabuse  them- 
selves, is  that  success  in  the  ministry  follows  by  any 
necessary  law  from  the  passing  of  seven  years  in  the 
College  and  Theological  Seminary. 

It  is  hard  to  get  a  hearing  for  the  truth  on  this 
point.  Demetrius  and  his  craftsmen  are  all  abroad 
in  the  land.  One  of  the  innocent  errors  of  youth  is 
to  suppose  that  the  best  man  and  the  best  thing  for 
any  given  occasion  require  but  to  be  indicated  to  be 
at  once  employed. 

McCreary's  ink  is  said  to  be  as  good  as  Light- 
body's,  and  perhaps  better  ;  but  the  good  will  of  the 
pressmen  is  indispensable  to  the  demonstration,  and 
a  fair  trial  was  secured,  in  one  instance  at  least,  only 
by  delivering  the  ink  of  the  former  in  the  cask  of  the 
latter.  The  sanction  of  the  University  and  of  the 
Theological  School  cannot  reasonably  be  expected 
for  any  article  not  of  their  manufacture.  That  which 
has  their  imprimatur^  it  hardly  need  be  said,  is  made 
in  their  own  image  and  likeness. 

Now  to  quarrel  with  any  man  for  liking  his  own 
work  would  be  worse  than  idle.  It  is  one  of  the 
Divine  Creator's  special  mercies  to  our  race  that 
each  man  shall  like  his  own  work  ;  and  we  cannot 
pass  the  day-laborer  as  he  turns  up  the  soil,  the 
woodman  as  he  rough-hews  his  huge  log,  or  even 
the  merry  cobbler  who  hardens  both  soles  and  knees 
with  never-ceasing  blows,  without  thanking  God  that 
he  has  made  man  to  rejoice  in  the  work  of  his  hands. 


I06  THE   CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

But  some  soils  are  too  light ;  some  logs  are  unsound, 
and  many  soles  are  every  way  unsatisfactory.  We 
may  judge  of  these^  and  who  shall  gainsay  our  right 
to  discuss  the  other  also. 

The  simple  truth  is,  the  Ministry  of  Salvation  is 
divinely  appointed  ;  sometimes  by  and  with  the  con- 
sent and  concurrence  of  the  Schools  and  the  Coun- 
cils, and  sometimes  in  defiance  of  all  their  canons ; 
and  this  for  the  best  of  reasons,  namely,  that  the 
Lord  hath  need  of  them.  An  ass  and  a  colt,  the  foal 
of  an  ass,  are  more  to  his  purpose,  when  he  requires 
them,  than  all  the  dromedaries  of  Midian  or  the 
polemic  war-horses,  whose  necks  are  clothed  with 
thunder,  and  who  are  too  proud  to  do  their  proper 
work. 

The  ministry  of  the  Gospel  offers  a  wide  field, 
upon  which  very  various  labors  are  to  be  performed. 
The  special  constables  for  literature  are  sworn  to 
admit  none  but  the  odd-fellows  or  free-masons  who 
can  exhibit  the  distinguishing  mark  of  their  gridiron. 
But  the  men  who  have  done  the  most  good  in  the 
world  —  and  many  such  are  thus  marked  —  have 
done  such  good,  not  because  of  their  overweening 
estimate  of  the  peculiar  and  exclusive  characteristics 
of  scholastic  training,  but  because  native  good  sense 
and  the  inspiration  of  the  Almighty  had  taught  them 
to  subordinate  the  teachings  of  the  schools  to  the 
guidance  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 

Men  often  find  themselves  committed  to  forms  of 
labor  not  at  all  suited  to  their  gifts,  on  no  better 


THE    MINISTRY    OF    SALVATION.  10/ 

argument  than  that  father,  brothers,  or  friends  hap- 
pen to  be  so  engaged.  It  demands  nerve  and  a 
good  deal  of  piety  to  back  out  of  a  mistake.  But 
when  a  minister  can  find  no  evidence  of  that  call  to 
the  ministry,  well  defined  by  one  minister  thus  : "  You 
want  to  preach,  and  the  people  want  to  hear  you," 
how  much  better  it  is  that  he  should  engage  in  some 
calling  which  he  can  adorn  than  to  bring  reproach 
upon  that  holy  service  which  not  to  honor  is  to  de- 
grade. Ministers,  not  a  few,  have  destroyed  their 
own  happiness,  and  lowered  the  ministry  of  salva- 
tion in  the  esteem  of  the  people,  by  a  persistent 
belief,  founded  on  a  diploma  (after  repeated  experi- 
ences that  their  ministry  was  wholly  unacceptable), 
that  the  people  alone  were  in  fault. 

Men  of  business  do  not  thus  blind  themselves  to 
truth.  They  hold  their  ministry  to  be  a  means  to  an 
end  :  that  end  is  to  make  money.  The  business 
which  will  not  make  money  is  promptly  abandoned. 
The  ministry  which  will  not  win  souls  ought  to  be  as 
promptly  abandoned  ;  or,  at  all  events,  modified  to 
meet  the  exigencies  of  a  ministry  of  salvation.  The 
ministers  of  God  are  not  those  whom  men  have  made 
such,  but  those  whom  God  has  made  such.  A  great 
many  men  in  business  have  been  convinced  by  ex- 
perience that  they  were  not  in  their  place,  and  have 
profited  by  the  discovery.  One  who  commenced  life 
in  the  small  and  wearisome  details  of  a  domestic 
trade,  turned  his  attention  to  shipping,  and  devel- 
oped a  commanding  genius  for  commerce,  in  which 


I08  THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

he  readily  amassed  a  fortune.  How  good  a  work- 
man the  Tinker  of  Bedford  may  have  been,  it  is  too 
late  to  learn  ;  but  none  can  doubt  that  it  was  well 
for  the  world  and  for  himself  that  he  who  was  able 
to  instruct  the  race  in  the  most  exquisite  creations 
of  Christian  genius  should  leave  pots  and  kettles  to 
those  who  dreamed  of  nothing  nobler.  It  is  also 
true  that  one  department  of  labor  in  the  ministry  is 
not  always  as  well  suited  as  some  other,  to  any  par- 
ticular minister. 

To  a  clerical  friend,  much  and  justly  esteemed  for 
his  frank  and  pleasant  address,  for  his  warm-hearted 
and  genial  disposition,  we  once  said,  "  We  have 
many  pleasant  associations  with  the  beginning  of 
your  ministry.  We  remember  well  those  short,  spirit- 
stirring,  extemporaneous  addresses  you  used  to  make 
in  .  .  .  vestry."  "Oh!  those  were  the  days  of  my 
puerile  efforts  !  "  was  the  answer,  given  in  a  tone 
which  said,  "  I  beg  you  will  understand  that  I  have 
long  since  put  away  such  childish  things." 

Now  the  truth  is,  those  which  he  characterized  as 
puerile  efforts  were  the  very  efforts  for  which  his 
Maker  designed  and  fitted  him.  Warm-hearted,  ex- 
temporaneous, not  wholly  unpremeditated,  addresses 
were  the  very  line  of  things  in  which  he  was  every 
way  fitted  to  succeed,  and  by  which  he  could  not  fail 
to  do  good,  though  he  might  and  would  miss  the 
applause  which  the  craft  bestow  on  "  intellectual 
efforts  "  in  which  man  has  more  voice  and  God  less. 
Let  such  a  man  sell  his  true  ministry  for  a  garland  of 


THE    MINISTRY    OF    SALVATION.  IO9 

laurel,  and  his  inward  life  will  be  darkened,  his 
power  to  influence  gone,  and  disappointment  will 
begin  to  set  her  cloudy  seal  upon  a  brow  that  ought 
to  be  always  irradiated  by  the  sunshine  of  fervid 
love. 

It  must  be  admitted  that  in  every  considerable 
parish  there  will  probably  be  some  querulous,  un- 
worthy church  members  ;  men  who  would  quarrel 
with  the  very  chief  of  the  apostles,  were  he  their  min- 
ister. It  is  surely  not  less  true  that  there  are  minis- 
ters not  a  few  who  misapprehend  their  true  sphere, 
and  miss  the  usefulness  and  the  happiness  within  their 
reach.  The  man  who  was  made  to  be  an  affection- 
ate, judicious,  and  eminently  useful  pastor,  under 
the  overmastering  influence  of  a  teacher  who  has  no 
special  gift  nor  affection  for  this  sphere,  may  be  led 
to  depreciate  pastoral  labor,  as  compared  with  labor- 
ious writing,  and  so  to  throw  away  the  opportunities 
he  has,  making  vain  attempts  to  shine  in  a  light 
which  he  has  not ;  to  emit  beams  which  he  cannot 
borrow.  , 

Could  anything  be  more  absurd  than  for  White- 
field  to  lay  himself  out  to  instruct  a  Bishop  Butler 
or  a  Jonathan  Edwards  in  the  logic  of  clear  reason- 
ing ?  But  Whitefield  might  do  even  such  men  im- 
mense good  by  one  of  his  tender  and  fervent  appeals. 
Is  it  not  then  apparent  that  there  is  no  little  danger 
that  many  a  good  man  will  fail  in  the  Christian  min- 
istry, not  for  the  want  of  resources,  but  from  not 
knowing  what   his    resources    really   are,   or  from 


no  THE    CHRISTIAN    AiiMSTRY. 

weakly  admitting  the  persuasion  that  no  resources 
are  worthy  to  be  employed  but  those  which  have  the 
stamp  of  supereminent  intellectual  ability  ? 

Every  Christian  has  some  real  ability  to  do  good  ; 
and  all  who  will  "  follow  God  as  dear  children," 
may  certainly  know  wherein  their  ability  lies.  To 
what  purpose  do  we  talk  of  faith  in  God,  if  we  may 
not,  or  will  not  trust  in  him  for  so  much  as  this  ? 
Has  he  not  said,  "  If  any  man  lack  wisdom,  let  him 
ask  of  God  who  giveth  to  all  men  liberally,  and  up- 
braideth  not,  and  it  shall  be  given  him  "  ?  The  man 
who  really  goes  to  God  for  wisdom  —  prejudging 
nothing  —  but  following  him  as  an  affectionate  child, 
cannot  but  be  useful,  and  very  useful.  He  is  a  light 
set  upon  a  candlestick,  a  city  upon  a  hill ;  he  cannot 
be  hid,  but  must  be  seen,  and  so  seen  as  to  compel 
men  to  glorify  his  Father  in  Heaven.  Such  a  man 
will  never  subordinate  the  life  of  God  in  the  soul  of 
man  to  any  theory.  Promptly  admitting  that  theories 
of  doctrine  and  measures  have  their  value  and  con- 
venience, as  in  a  dark  night  carriage-lanterns  may 
throw  light  upon  a  road  hitherto  untravelled,  or  upon 
one  many  times  travelled,  yet  will  he  ever  reckon 
them  of  small  worth  except  as  held  in  complete  sub- 
ordination to  the  guidance  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 

Our  age  is  an  age  of  intense  vitality.  The  rail- 
road and  the  electric  telegraph  are  but  the  efflores- 
cence of  that  life.  It  is  all-pervasive  ;  revealing 
itself  in  mechanics,  in  manufactures,  in  commerce, 
in  scientific  movements  ;  and  it  is  fostered  by  the 


THE    MINISTRY   OF   SALVATION.  Ill 

abundant  rewards  lavished  upon  it,  and  quickening 
it,  if  possible,  to  yet  greater  intensity.  Every  one 
knows  this  to  be  true  of  secular  affairs ;  for  that  is  a 
kingdom  which  comes  with  observatiofi^  and  chal- 
lenges attention  at  every  turn,  at  all  hours,  with  an 
earnestness  and  a  pertinacity  of  appeal  that  defies 
insensibility.  Men  must  see,  hear,  feel,  and  be  in- 
fluenced, whether  they  will  or  not.  Now  while  such 
is  the  case  in  all  that  pertains  to  secular  affairs,  what 
has  been  gained  to  the  ministry  of  eternal  life  ?  It 
may  not  be  denied  that  there  is  here  and  there  one 
in  a  State,  or  ten  on  a  continent,  who  are  fully 
awake  to  the  comparison  invited  ;  who  mean  to  be 
heard,  and  will  be  heard ;  who  are  as  vital  and  as 
powerful  as  the  highest  and  best  in  the  secular 
world,  and  as  much  more,  as  spiritual  life  is  superior 
to  natural  life.  And  there  are  more  who,  without 
anything  like  a  national  influence,  are  too  much  in 
earnest  and  too  sensible  to  fail  of  an  attentive  hear- 
ing ;  but  passing  by  this  limited  number  of  preachers, 
who  could  be  truly  represented  as  not  a  whit  behind 
the  age,  it  will  appear  to  be  true  that  the  great 
majority  of  preachers  do  not  command  and  do  not 
expect  for  the  Gospel  of  God,  anything  like  the  in- 
terest accorded  to  the  most  emphatic  secular  appeals. 
What  men  neither  command  nor  expect  to  attain 
they  of  course  do  not  labor  for.  The  majority  of 
the  ministry  appear  to  look  upon  it  as  a  foregone 
conclusion  that  the  clamorous  appeals  of  politics, 
and  of  "one-idea"  reform,  and  the  six  days'  thun- 


112  THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

der  of  business  and  worldliness  in  general,  is  not 
to  be  contended  with  ;  that  if  the  ministry  get  the 
fraction  of  what  there  is  left  of  a  man,  after  or 
over  and  above  this,  they  do  well  ;  that  so  it  has 
been  in  times  past,  and  so  it  must  needs  be  in  all 
coming  time ;  that  men  will  crowd  the  marts  of  com- 
merce, crowd  the  popular  lecture-room,  and  throng 
the  places  of  public  amusement  and  the  political 
arena,  and  devour  with  eagerness  every  forcible  ap- 
peal to  the  natural  man,  but  that  the  Gospel  must 
needs  be  dispensed  to  only  here  and  there  a  willing 
ear,  a  fraction  only  of  the  moderate  congregation 
usually  assembled  in  the  house  of  God. 

Why  are  the  speakers  heard  so  attentively  in  the 
one  place,  and  with  so  little  attention  in  the  other  ? 
The  facile  answer  of  a  majority  of  ministers  is, 
"  Oh,  that  is  simply  because  the  natural  man  receiv- 
eth  not  the  things  of  the  Spirit  of  God."  The  an- 
swer is  the  answer  of  the  natural  man  ;  it  is  a  gross 
libel  on  the  race.  For  though  the  sentence  is  true 
in  itself,  yet,  as  thus  quoted,  it  is  more  wicked  than 
is  at  all  conceived  by  those  who  so  thoughtlessly 
assign  it. 

Let  us  keep  to  the  fact,  and  what  is  the  fact  ?  It 
is  that  the  man  who  first  of  all  gives  himself  soul, 
body,  and  spirit  wholly  away  to  God,  consecrating  all 
to  the  advancement  of  his  Kingdom  —  the  man  who 
gives  to  Christ  the  vv'hole  wealth  of  an  ardently  lov- 
ing heart,  acquires  a  power  in  handling  the  word  of 
life   that   nobody  can   view  without   deep   interest, 


THE    MINISTRY    OF    SALVATION.  II3 

ay,  the  very  deepest  interest  possible  to  a  human 
heart. 

The  secret  of  the  persuasive  power  of  those  who, 
in  any  department  oi  knowledge,  influence  the  great 
congregation,  is  in  their  promptly  renouncing  all  re- 
liance upon  any  prescriptive  right  to  be  heard  ;  in 
their  making  themselves  thoroughly  cognizant  of  the 
mental  whereabouts  of  their  hearers  ;  in  their  lively 
sensibility  to,  and  sympathy  with  the  living  hearts 
before  them ;  and  in  the  determination  and  energy 
with  which  they  throw  themselves  into  the  endeavor 
to  instruct  and  influence  them.  They  have  no  reli- 
ance upon  any  dead  language,  vernacular  or  other. 
Theirs  is  the  living  language  of  an  earnest  soul,  to 
souls  known  and  felt  to  be  capable  and  probably  ripe 
for  deep  sympathy  with  their  own  earnestness.  Their 
speech  is,  in  effect,  actual  conversation,  into  which 
the  speaker  more  or  less  perceptibly  introduces  the 
responses  of  his  hearers.  It  used  to  be  said  of  Dr. 
Lyman  Beecher,  when  he  first  settled  in  Boston,  and 
with  truth,  ''  No  sooner  did  an  objection  to  one  of 
his  statements  or  arguments  arise  in  your  mind  than 
he  named  it,  and  replied  to  it."  And  the  reading  of 
the  Scriptures  permits  —  nay,  it  not  only  permits,  it 
dema?tds,  in  simple  justice  to  the  word  of  God,  that 
the  reading  be  such  as  in  this  way  to  speak  continu- 
ally to  the  inmost  soul  of  the  hearer. 

Could  a  man  read  a  warm-hearted  letter  from  his 
wife,  a  letter  charged  with  messages  of  love  to  each 
of  their  children,  in  such  wise  as  to  permit  them  to 


114  THE   CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

be  less  than  thoroughly  alive  and  tender  to  all  its 
sentiments  ?  Nay,  disguise  it  as  we  may,  there  must 
first  of  all  be  treason  in  the  preacher's  own  soul  — 
his  own  love  must  be  twice  dead,  or  it  will  be  a  con- 
tagious influence,  not  to  be  eluded  or  repelled.  Let 
men  excuse  their  failures  to  themselves  as  they  will, 
seeking  to  throw  the  blame  anywhere  but  on  them- 
selves—  the  spiritually-minded  know  better.  This, 
of  course,  will  be  unpalatable  truth.  Were  minis- 
terial success  contingent  wholly  or  chiefly  upon  great 
talents,  it  might  well  be  said.  This  is  a  hard  saying, 
who  can  hear  it .''  But  as  the  success  of  every  man 
who  is  called  of  God  to  the  ministry,  depends  solely 
upon  single-hearted,  whole-souled  consecration  to 
Christ,  it  is  not  only  not  unkind,  but  it  is  the  only 
true  kindness  to  aflirm  and  to  re-affirm  it.  The 
promise  of  Christ  —  his  largest  promises  are  to  those 
who  leave  all  and  follow  him.  All  things  work  to- 
gether for  good  to  him  who  does  this.  Until  you 
have  done  this  you  have  not  done  what  you  could  ; 
and  you  have  no  right  to  lay  the  blame  of  failure  in 
your  ministry  —  no  right  to  lay  the  sin  of  a  very  lim- 
ited success  in  your  ministry,  elsewhere  than  at  your 
own  door. 


IX. 


TRACT   PREACHING. 


OUR  Lord's  command,  "Go  ye  into  all  the 
world,  and  preach  the  Gospel  to  every  crea- 
ture," includes  every  form  of  preaching  that  is  fitted 
to  communicate  the  Gospel.  Evidently  the  disciple 
in  each  age  is  to  interpret  his  Lord's  command  ac- 
cording to  the  facilities  which  his  age  affords.  The 
simple  talk  of  Jesus,  of  what  he  said,  and  what  he 
did,  uttered  and  recorded  by  the  first  disciples,  is  the 
common  privilege  of  all  disciples  in  all  the  ages. 
When  a  better  education  than  that  which  fell  to 
Matthew,  Mark,  and  Peter,  is  given,  the  receiver 
ought  to  turn  to  the  Master's  use  every  facility  this 
better  education  supplies.  He  who  has  access  to 
the  press  ought  to  use  the  press.  And  since,  in  our 
day,  all  may  use  tracts  and  books,  all  ought  to  use 
them. 

Christian  men  and  women  are  too  ready  to  hold 
themselves  excused  from  preaching  the  Gospel  ;  too 
ready  to  avail  themselves  of  the  excuse  supplied  by 
that  traditional  and  prevailing  notion  of  preaching 


Il6  THE   CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

which  limits  it  to  the  pronouncing  of  a  discourse  from 
a  text  in  a  pulpit.  To  allow  this  interpretation  is  to 
relax  the  hold  which  our  Lord's  command  has  on 
every  conscience  and  on  every  heart ;  it  is  to  annihi- 
late the  hope  his  promise  was  intended  to  inspire  ; 
namely,  "  The  earth  shall  be  full  of  the  knowledge 
of  the  Lord  as  the  waters  cover  the  sea."  This 
promise,  like  the  promise  of  safety  to  Paul  and  his 
fellow-voyagers,  is  conditional  upon  the  faithful  en- 
deavors of  all  the  disciples. 

My  dear  brother,  sister,  child,  how  can  you,  with 
confident  expectation,  look  forward  to  a  share  in  the 
heavenly  joy  of  those  who  have  abounded  in  the 
work  of  the  Lord,  if,  on  any  plea,  you  excuse  your- 
self from  such  preaching  of  the  Gospel  as  he  has 
offered  to  you  ?  Do  you  say,  "  Oh !  I  could  never 
bring  myself  to  give  tracts  to  people ;  I  have  an  in- 
vincible repugnance  to  it ;  I  know  they  do  not  wish 
them  ;  and,  besides,  I  do  not  feel  sure  that  they  would 
do  any  good  "  ?  Do  you  not  see  that  your  excuse,  if 
allowed,  would  stop  all  preaching  ?  The  minister  in 
his  pulpit  might  yield  to  the  repugnance  which  at  one 
time  or  another  comes  upon  him  to  press  some  obli- 
gation which  he  knows  ought  to  be  met,  which  is  not 
met,  which  is  most  unwelcome  to  the  ears  and  to  the 
hearts  of  some  in  his  congregation.  Shall  he  spare 
his  own  feelings,  and  preach  only  smooth  things  ? 
Shall  he  not  rather  cry  mightily  to  God  for  strength 
to  overcome  his  repugnance  ?  Shall  he  serve  God 
with  what  costs  him  nothing .? 


TRACT    PREACHING.  II/ 

You  are  not  sure,  you  say,  that  the  tracts,  if  given, 
would  do  any  good.  You  would  never  say  this  were 
you  actively  engaged  in  the  work.  Your  own  de- 
lightful experience  would  soon  assure  you.  Said  a 
friend  lately,  in  answer  to  my  request  for  facts, 
"  Take  this  for  one  :  Within  three  years,  twenty-Jive 
persons  have  said  to  me,  '  I  was  led  to  Christ  by 
a  tract  you  gave  me.'  "  Not  long  since,  I  had  a 
letter  from   a  stranger  in   the  country,   as  follows : 

"  On  your  way  to  F ,   you  handed   '  Have   You 

Found  God  ? '  to  a  very  dear  friend  of  mine,  who  was 
not  then  a  Christian.  The  little  tract  was  read  with 
deep  interest ;  and  I  am  happy  to  tell  you  that  I  be- 
lieve God  is  now  found  by  that  friend."  To  an  in- 
valid, I  sent  a  number  of  tracts  for  her  distribution 
among  her  visitors.  One  of  these  she  sent  to  a  fel- 
low-sufferer who  has  since  gone  to  her  rest.  Before 
her  departure,  she  wrote,  "That  tract  led  me  to 
Christ."  Another  writes,  "  I  inclosed  '  The  Com- 
forter '  in  a  letter  to  an  army-chum  of  mine  ;  and  he 
came  a  hundred  miles  to  tell  me  of  the  blessing  it 
brought  him  and  to  praise  and  pray."  While  con- 
versing with  a  friend  in  the  cars,  I  noticed  in  the 
seat  behind  us  a  thoughtful  face,  and  handed  to  the 
person,  "  Why  You  should  be  a  Christian."  After  a 
few  moments'  reading,  she  leaned  forward,  and  said, 
"  When  you  have  finished  your  conversation,  I  should 
like  to  speak  with  you."  I  went  at  once  into  her 
seat ;  and  she  said,  "  I  have  always  wished  to  be  a 
Christian ;  but   I   do  not  knov/  the  way."     This,  of 


Il8  THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

course,  led  to  an  endeavor  to  make  the  way  as  simple 
and  clear  to  her  apprehension  as  might  be. 

Can  you  have  a  doubt  either  of  the  suitableness  or 
of  the  bounden  duty  of  holding  yourself  ready  to 
stimulate  and  to  encourage  inquiry  for  the  way  of 
life  ?  And  can  you  for  a  moment  indulge  the  idea, 
that  the  existence  of  the  order  of  the  clergy  exon- 
erates the  individual  disciple  from  the  obligation 
everywhere  to  enact  the  part  of  a  loyal,  loving,  ear- 
nest friend  of  Christ,  sworn  to  preach  his  Gospel  to 
every  creature  ? 

"  But,"  you  say,  "  though  I  do  not  deny  the  obli- 
gation in  one  way  or  another  to  preach  the  Gospel 
to  every  creature,  I  am  sure  that  our  gifts  differ; 
and  that  what  one  man  would  do  well,  another  would 
not  do  as  well,  and  probably  not  at  all  well.  For 
myself,  I  must  declare  that  I  could  not  do  this  parti- 
cular work.  I  am  glad  to  have  it  done ;  I  believe, 
with  you,  that  it  is  adapted  to  do  much  good.  Many 
a  person  will  read  a  short,  simple,  conversational  ap- 
peal in  print,  who  would  not  give  you  an  opportunity 
to  say  the  same  things  to  him  in  any  other  way  ;  and 
I  would  encourage  every  one  who  feels  himself  called 
to  engage  in  the  work  to  persevere  and  abound  in 
it." 

Very  well,  brother,  you  are  one  of  the  friends 
whose  cordial  support  we  are  glad  to  avail  ourselves 
of.  For  your  own  sake,  I  am  sorry  that  you  can  not 
personally  engage  in  tract-giving  :  for  the  influence 
of  this  work  on  the  man  who  abounds  in  it,  quicken- 


TRACT    PREACHING.  I  IQ 

ing  his  zeal,  intensifying  his  love  and  faith  and  cour- 
age and  skill  in  doing  good,  is  very  great ;  but  if  you 
cannot  avail  yourself  of  this  privilege,  then  we  shall 
be  glad  to  introduce  to  you  hundreds  and  thousands 
of  men,  women,  and  children,  who  will  bless  you  for 
the  money  you  will  give  us,  and  who  will  take  upon 
them  this  precious  work  of  tract-preaching,  and,  as 
your  representatives,  will  scatter  the  little  messen- 
gers of  salvation  all  over  the  land.  Here  is  Brother 
Moody  of  Chicago,  entreating  us  no  longer  to  dole 
him  out  tracts  by  the  spoonful,  but  to  give  them  by 
tons  for  the  evangelization  of  the  waste  places  in  the 
West.  I  asked  him,  "  How  is  dear  Brother  Burnell 
getting  on?"  "Oh!  poor  fellow,"  he  replied,  "he 
has  been  all  along  the  line  of  the  Pacific  Railroad, 
doing  what  he  could  with  his  voice  ;  but  he  could  get 
no  tracts  to  scatter.  I  remember,  when  I  began  this 
work,  I  used  to  buy  a  quarter  of  a  dollar's  worth  at 
a  time ;  and  my  quarters  were  soon  gone,  and  then  I 
had  to  stop." 

Brother,  will  you  let  Jesus  Christ's  laborers  stop 
for  lack  of  a  tract  ?  —  for  lack  of  means  to  procure 
them  .?  Do  you  not  know  that  the  servants  of  Satan 
are  untiring  in  their  tract-preaching  ?  —  that  they  go 
everywhere  scattering  his  words  ?  Will  you  permit 
the  rich  soil  of  human  hearts  in  this  broad  land  to  be 
filled  with  tares^  when  it  is  in  your  power  to  have  it 
filled  with  good  seed?  In  the  name  of  Him  who  went 
about  doing  good,  whose  whole  life  was  a  life  of  self- 
denying,  self-sacrificing  devotion  to  the  work  of  sav- 


120  THE   CHRISTIAN   MINISTRY. 

ing  and  sanctifying  the  souls  of  men,  we  implore  you 
to  give  us  the  means  of  so  reducing  the  cost  of  tract- 
preaching  as  to  make  it  available  even  to  the  poorest. 
There  are  multitudes  of  noble  men,  women,  and 
children  too,  who  delight  in  this  work,  who  stand 
ready  to  make  it  immeasurably  more  useful,  but  who 
are  now  restrained  by  the  cost  of  doing  so.  Take  a 
hint,  we  pray  you,  from  Peter  Drummond,  the  seeds- 
man of  Stirling,  who  from  a  single  tract  which  he 
was  impelled  to  get  out  to  meet  a  crying  sin,  has 
gone  on  to  hundreds,  and  from  handfuls  to  tons. 
Take  a  hint  from  Henry  Bewley  of  Dublin,  who,  out 
of  an  income  of  forty  thousand  pounds  a  year,  is  said 
to  devote  thirty-nine  thousand  pounds  to  the  multi- 
plication and  cheapening  of  religious  tracts ;  so  that 
five  neat  little  pocket  tracts  on  colored  paper  are  sold 
for  a  penny,  four-fifths  of  the  cost  of  the  tract  being 
paid  by  this  charitable  friend. 

Brother,  you  know  the  love  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ ;  that  he  was  rich,  and  made  himself  poor  for 
us.  How  much  owest  thou  thy  Lord  ?  Take  coun- 
sel of  thy  love  for  him ;  and  what  thy  hand  finds  to 
do,  what  thy  heart  impels  thee  to  do,  do  it  as  for  the 
Lord  Christ. 


A   SUCCESSFUL   MINISTRY. 

A  SUCCESSFUL  ministry !  Momentous  words  ; 
momentous  idea.  Can  I  hope  so  to  deal  with 
it  as  to  give  no  just  occasion  for  complaint  ?  as  to 
encourage  those  who  ought  to  hope  for  and  to  expect 
such  a  ministry?  as  to  lighten  the  burdens  of  some 
who  are  grievously  oppressed  ?  as  to  bring  honor 
and  service  to  Christ  from  quarters  where  it  is  now 
withholden  ?  Surely  the  endeavor  to  do  this  may 
crave  the  indulgence  of  all. 

Who  then  is  a  successful  minister  of  Christ  ?  Is 
it  not  he  who  in  an  eminent  degree  attains  the  object 
which  Christ  sought  ?  This  is  a  faithful  saying,  and 
worthy  of  all  acceptation,  that  "  Christ  Jesus  came 
into  the  world  to  save  sinners."  He  came  to  save 
and  to  sanctify.  The  testimony  of  the  redeemed 
corroborates  this :  "  Thou  wast  slain,  and  hast  re- 
deemed us  to  God  by  thy  blood  out  of  every  kindred, 
and  tongue,  and  people  and  nation  ;  and  hast  made 
us  unto  our  God,  kings  and  priests." 


122  THE   CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

Now  a  king  —  such  a  king  as  is  here  portrayed  — 
is  a  conqueror,  and  a  priest  is  a  worshipper ;  and  the 
victory  is  not  merely  over  flesh  and  blood,  but  over 
principalities  and  powers,  over  the  rulers  of  the  dark- 
ness of  this  world,  and  over  spiritual  wickedness  in 
high  quarters  ;  and  the  successful  minister  is  he  who 
leads  on  the  people  of  his  charge  to  such  victories. 
He  is  therefore  more  than  a  preacher,  more  than  a 
pastor ;  he  is  a  general  officer  appointed  to  the  com- 
mand of  his  section  of  the  army  of  the  Lord.  His 
commission  combines  and  blends  this  threefold  ser- 
vice. This  is  palpably  involved  in  our  Lord's  last 
command  to  the  whole  body  of  disciples :  "  Go  ye 
therefore  and  teach  all  nations,  baptizing  them  in 
the  name  of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the 
Holy  Ghost;  teaching  them  to  observe  all  things 
whatsoever  I  have  commanded  you."  Observe  how 
comprehensive  is  the  command;  it  is  given  to  all 
believers,  in  the  behalf  of  all  nations,  and  includes 
all  things  which  Christ  has  enjoined.  It  lays  claim 
to  the  total  ability  of  every  disciple,  to  his  interior  as 
well  as  outspoken  life.  It  summons  us  to  that  unity 
of  life  with  Christ  without  which  it  is  impossible  to 
teach  all  nations  the  lessons  of  Christ.  It  involves 
reproof,  rebuke,  warning,  instruction,  exhortation, 
entreaty,  and  long-suffering.  It  most  certainly  de- 
mands that  thorough  and  heart-pervading  apprecia- 
tion of  the  Gospel  of  Christ  without  which  no  man 
can  be  its  fearless  champion,  its  intelligent  and  per- 
suasive advocate,  and  most  obviously  necessitates  a 


A    SUCCESSFUL    MINISTRY.  123 

ministry  with  manifold  gifts,  apostles,  prophets,  evan- 
gelists, pastors,  and  teachers,  for  the  perfecting  of 
the  saints,  for  the  work  of  the  ministry,  for  the  edify- 
ing of  the  body  of  Christ.  And  this  body  is  not 
one  member,  but  many,  which  God  has  attempered 
together  to  the  intent  that  the  members  should  have 
the  same  care  one  for  another. 

That  then  is  a  successful  ministry,  which,  recog- 
nizing our  divine  Master's  care  for  the  body,  secures 
the  health  of  the  body  in  securing  the  healthy  exer- 
cise of  the  gift  of  each  member.  And  he  will  be 
neither  a  successful  nor  a  happy  minister  who  leaves 
the  gifts  of  the  members  unused,  either  because  of 
omitting  to  demand  and  to  draw  out  such  use,  or 
because  of  a  mistaken  substitution  of  some  other 
thing  in  the  place  of  that  use.  And  that  is  an  unsuc- 
cessful ministry,  which  permits  the  members  of  the 
body  to  lose  the  sense  of  a  vital  relation  to  the  body. 
In  the  true  sense  of  success,  there  can  be  no  more 
unsuccessful  ministry  than  that  which  fills  the  house 
of  worship  with  mere  hearers,  with  those  who  are 
made  conscious  of  little  or  no  responsibility  for 
the  conversion  and  edification  of  their  fellow-wor- 
shippers. 

Every  right-minded  man  in  contemplating  the  gos- 
pel ministry,  knows  that  he  is  to  bring  both  mind 
and  heart  to  his  work.  He  knows  that  great  de- 
mands will  be  made  upon  the  one  and  upon  the 
other.  He  has,  perhaps,  his  misgivings  as  to  the  pos- 
sibility of   meeting  these   demands ;    and   withal   a 


124  THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

judgment,  or  at  least  a  conjecture,  as  to  which  of 
these  demands  will  tax  him  most  severely.  He 
would  give  much  to  know  how  he  may  marshal  these 
respective  forces  most  effectively.  If  he  has  learned 
the  use  of  prayer  as  he  ought,  he  will  pray  earnestly 
for  Divine  guidance.  As  an  intelligent  and  faithful 
servant  of  Jesus  Christ  he  must  strongly  desire  to 
succeed  in  his  ministry,  and  therefore  the  question, 
how  may  a  successful  ministry  be  secured  ?  must 
always  be  to  him  a  problem  of  the  deepest  interest. 

This  is  a  question  for  the  people,  no  less  than  a 
question  for  the  minister;  because  the  principle  of 
demand  and  supply  operates  here,  as  indeed  it  must 
needs  do  everywhere.  What  the  people  now  demand 
must  in  no  inconsiderable  degree  be  referred  to  what 
they  have  hitherto  received.  Whether  they  will  here- 
after improve  in  their  demands,  under  God,  lies  very 
much  with  the  ministry  of  the  day  to  decide. 

Evidently  this  is  a  question  in  which  we  have  a 
common  momentous  interest,  and  the  discussion  of 
it,  in  love  to  God  and  men,  cannot  fail  to  be  attended 
with  profit. 

Possibly  there  may  be  in  some  a  disposition  to 
shrink  from  this  discussion.  Why?  because,  as  we 
all  know,  there  are  men  who  greatly  dislike  the  dis- 
cussing of  questions  which  may  tend  to  disturb 
established  customs.  They  are  haunted  by  the  fear 
that  in  flying  from  the  evils  which  we  know,  we  may 
be  landed  in  greater  evils  that  we  know  not  of. 
Moreover,  there  are  men  with  little  reverence  for 


A   SUCCESSFUL    MINISTRY.  125 

anything  established,  who  incline  to  think  that 
almost  any  change  must  be  for  the  better ;  and  we 
cannot  but  fear  that  in  their  zeal  to  pull  up  tares, 
such  men  will  pull  up  the  wheat  with  them. 

Nevertheless,  we  cannot  let  this  matter  alone,  if  we 
would,  for  it  is  a  matter  of  such  universal  concern 
that  it  will  present  itself ;  it  claims  and  will  have  dis- 
cussion. And  if  it  be  not  discussed  by  those  who 
have  given  much  thought  and  prayer  to  it,  why  then 
it  will  even  fall  into  the  hands  of  those  who  have 
given  to  it  little  of  either. 

To-day  it  is  admitted  on  all  hands,  that  the  inte- 
rest in  Church  services  is  less  than  it  once  was,  far 
less  than  it  ought  to  be.  The  principal  cause  of  this 
is  the  perversion  of  the  pulpit  from  the  true  intent, 
namely,  the  cultivation  of  the  religious  sentiment, 
from  the  development  of  the  love,  reverence,  and 
worship  of  God.  This  has  been  gradual,  and  not  in- 
tentional, but  incidental.  It  came  under  the  wing  of 
an  angel  of  light ;  it  was  in  the  beginning  simply  a 
strong  desire  fqjr  intellectual  progress ;  a  vigorous 
determination  that  religious  knowledge  should  not 
fall  behind  other  knowledge  ;  that  the  statement  of 
religious  truth  should  lack  nothing  of  the  originality 
and  force  which  characterizes  and  recommends  the 
best  representations  of  secula^r  science.  It  was  thus 
the  present  prevailing  manner  of  inculcation  was 
brought  in.  It  is  philosophy  rather  than  religion  ; 
its  forms  of  thought  and  modes  of  presentation  are 
far  more  human  and  rationalistic,  than  divine  and 


126  THE   CHRISTIAN   MINISTRY. 

authoritative.  It  is  the  appeal  of  one  head  to 
another,  not  the  wrestling  of  one  heart  with  another; 
and  still  less  is  it  the  burning  utterances  of  God's 
heart,  fitted  by  the  transmission  of  a  sympathetic 
human  soul  to  storm  and  carry  every  defence  op- 
posed to  it.  The  preaching  God  bids  us  preach,  is 
the  will  of  God  lovingly  received,  and  then  lovingly 
imparted.  The  knowledge  of  that  will  comes  of 
intimate  communion  with  God  and  the  Lamb ;  and 
there  is  and  can  be  no  substitute  for  the  knowledge 
so  derived.  It  is  the  peculiar  property  of  the  believer 
who  has  simply  and  heartily  embraced  the  promise 
of  the  Comforter ;  who  has  gladly  placed  himself 
under  his  tuition  ;  who  has  intelligently  received  the 
Holy  One  as  his  honored  and  beloved  guest ;  who 
simply,  unhesitatingly,  and  constantly  asks  and  re- 
ceives his  guidance,  and  lives  in  the  assurance  and 
sunlight  of  his  favor. 

I  am  led  to  believe  that  no  small  part  of  the 
acknowledged  difficulties  besetting  the  question  of  a 
successful  ministry,  arises  from  one^or  two  assump- 
tions which  lack  support. 

The  first  of  these  is,  that  the  preaching  which  now 
prevails  is  the  identical  preaching  of  which  it  is  writ- 
ten, "  It  pleased  God  by  the  foolishness  of  preaching 
to  save  them  that  believed  ; "  and  that  it  is  also  the 
very  preaching  enjoined  upon  us  in  Mark  xvi.  15. 

Preaching  is  thus  defined  by  Dr.  Webster :  — 

I.  To  pronounce  a  public  discourse  on  religious 
subjects,  or  from  a  text  of  Scripture.     The  word  is 


A    SUCCESSFUL    MINISTRY.  12/ 

usually  applied  to  such  discourses  as  are  formed 
from  a  text  of  Scripture. 

2.  To  discourse  on  the  Gospel  way  of  salvation, 
and  exhort  to  repentance ;  to  discourse  on  evangel- 
ical truths,  and  exhort  to  a  belief  of  them  and  ac- 
ceptance of  the  terms  of  salvation.  This  was  the 
extemporaneous  manner  of  preaching  pursued  by 
Christ  and  his  apostles;  Matt,  iv.,  x.  Acts  x.,  xiv. 

The  first  of  these  definitions  is  evidently  the  defini- 
tion of  preaching  now  almost  universally  received. 
It  is  in  marked  contrast  to  the  preaching  of  our 
Saviour  and  of  his  apostles.  Preachers  of  the  pres- 
ent day  agree  in  confessing  much  disappointment  in 
the  result  of  their  labors.  In  looking  for  the  origin 
of  this  disappointment  in  the  result  of  preaching,  it 
is  natural  to  compare  the  present  with  the  former 
preaching,  and  to  inquire  if  the  loss  of  power  may 
not  be  attributed  to  the  change.  It  is  written  that 
great  multitudes  followed  Jesus  ;  that  many  believed 
under  his  preaching,  and  also  under  the  preaching  of 
his  apostles.  What  sufficient  motive  can  be  assigned 
for  departing  from  that  preaching  which  accom- 
plished the  great  object  of  preaching,  the  conversion 
of  men  to  God. 

I  could  wish  that  this  question  might  have  its  an- 
swer just  here  from  th-e  pen  of  some  one  of  the  ablest 
vindicators  of  the  modern  method  ;  but,  as  that  is  not 
attainable,  1  shall  endeavor  fairly  to  state  the  motives 
which  seem  to  me  most  likely  to  be  alleged  by  such 
an  advocate. 


128  THE   CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

I  suppose  it  would  be  said,  that  to  the  advocacy  of 
the  Gospel,  every  power  of  persuasion  employed  for 
the  furtherance  of  any  good  thing  should  be  brought ; 
that  the  power  of  persuasion  varies  with  the  charac- 
teristics of  the  ages ;  that  the  people  addressed  by 
our  Saviour  and  his  disciples  were,  in  the  main,  a 
simple  and  unlettered  people  ;  that  they  adopted  the 
mode  of  preaching  best  suited  to  the  men  of  their 
time ;  and  that  there  is  every  reason  to  believe  that 
were  they  now  on  the  stage  of  life,  they  would  adopt 
the  mode  of  preaching  best  suited  to  the  men  of  our 
time ;  that  as  learning,  logic,  rhetoric,  and  the  force 
of  eloquence  are  now  most  formidably  arrayed  for 
the  furtherance  of  every  science,  so,  and  with  more 
reason,  for  the  furtherance  of  the  Gospel,  should 
every  power  of  man  be  to  the  utmost  developed  by 
the  discipline  of  the  schools  ;  that  as  error  is  more 
and  more  fortifying  herself  with  all  manner  of  earth- 
works, so,  and  much  more,  ought  divine  science  to 
avail  herself  of  every  possible  advantage  ;  that  though 
"  a  sling  and  smooth  stones  from  the  brook  "  might 
be  well  enough  for  primitive  warfare,  quite  another 
style  of  weapon  is  indispensable  to  the  times  in 
which  we  live,  against  the  adversaries  with  whom  we 
contend ;  that  as  by  the  discipline  of  modern  educa- 
tion our  people  are  raised  to  a  high  plane  in  relation 
to  every  natural  science,  the  teaching  of  the  pulpit 
should  come  up  to  that  plane. 

Doubtless  much  more  could  be  said  in  the  same 
strain ;  but  I  may  hope  to  escape  even  the  appear- 


A    SUCCESSFUL    MINISTRY.  1 29 

ance  of  injustice,  if  I  content  myself  with  this  brief 
mention  of  what  I  suppose  to  be  the  drift  of  the  ar- 
gument. 

There  can  be  no  question  that  the  educational  ad- 
vantages of  our  day  have  imposed  upon  all  candidates 
for  the  ministry,  obligations  once  unknown.  And 
while  no  certain  and  unalterable  rule  can  be  laid 
down  as  to  the  years  and  the  studies  which  must  be 
taken  up  in  the  way  of  preparation  for  the  ministry, 
by  every  man,  it  may  now,  as  formerly,  be  broadly 
stated  that  a  bishop  must  be  apt  to  teach,  one  that 
ruleth  well  his  own  house,  and  no  novice  ;  having  the 
sense  to  avoid  foolish  and  unlearned  questions, 
gentle,  patient,  and  meek  in  instructing  those  that 
oppose  themselves  to  his  work.  But  the  reasons  as- 
signed for  departing  from  our  Lord's  manner  of 
preaching  —  either  those  above  named  or  any  that 
have  come  to  my  knowledge  —  do  not  carry  my  con- 
viction.  I  nowhere  find  warrant  for  such  departure, 
either  in  specific  precept,  or  in  any  general  principle 
obviously  covering  and  including  such  precept.  Nor 
have  educational  advantages  wrought  such  modifica- 
tions in  man's  susceptibility  to  impression,  conviction 
and  conversion,  as  to  demand  the  change.  Our 
Lord's  methods  of  instruction  have  not  been  super- 
seded by  the  progress  of  science  in  any  one  of  its 
departments.  The  sacred  Record  is  therefore  our 
authoritative  guide  in  searching  for  an  answer  to  the 
question,  what  is  the  preaching  which  our  Lord  en- 
joined when  he  pronounced  that  last  command,  "  Go 


130  THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

ye  into  all  the  world  and  preach  the  Gospel  to  every 
creature." 

The  first  Gospel  use  of  the  term  preaching  seems  to 
be  that  in  the  announcement  of  Christ's  coming  by 
Isaiah  :  "  The  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is  upon  me,  because 
the  Lord  hath  anointed  me  to  preach  good  tidings 
unto  the  meek  ;  "  quoted  by  the  Saviour  thus  :  "  He 
hath  anointed  me  to  preach  the  Gospel  to  \\\q  poor ;  " 
A  Gospel  for  the  poor  must  needs  be  a  language  so 
simple  as  to  be  intelligible  to  the  uneducated.  Ac- 
cordingly we  find  the  forerunner  and  herald  of 
Christ  preaching  thus  :  "  Repent  ye,  for  the  kingdom 
of  heaven  is  at  hand."  The  poorest  could  under- 
stand that.  Jesus  himself  repeated  this  very  preach- 
ing :  "  Repent  for  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  at  hand." 
He  went  about  all  Galilee  repeating  this  sermon. 
And  when  the  multitudes  gathered  to  hear  him,  he 
gave  them  a  longer  sermon,  but  equally  simple, 
equally  intelligible  to  the  poorest  and  the  meekest. 
It  was  an  exceedingly  practical  sermon ;  in  fact,  a 
simple  statement  of  duty  and  of  privilege,  given  in  the 
language,  and  —  without  a  question  —  in  the  very 
tones  of  common  familiar  conversation. 

Now  with  what  show  of  reason  can  it  be  assumed 
that  an  original  metaphysical  disquisition,  a  scholas- 
tic expansion  of  three  lines,  or  of  three  words,  from 
some  isolated  text,  is  that  preaching  which  Christ 
enjoined,  and  also  illustrated,  throughout  his  min- 
istry? For  example,  in  the  "repent  ye,"  already 
quoted  ;  in  the  sermon  on  the  mount ;  in  his  sharp 


A    SUCCESSFUL    MINISTRY.  I3I 

rebukes  of  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees;  in  his  para- 
bles ;  and  everywhere  in  the  evangelists,  —  evidently 
our  Lord's  first  and  only  concern  was  to  impart  the 
precise  lesson  needed  by  his  hearers.  He  was  at 
no  pains  to  construct  a  logical  and  rhetorical  dis- 
quisition of  any  kind.  From  the  earliest  ages  it  has 
ever  been  his  way  to  send  men  who  could  deliver  his 
messages  to  the  people  in  this  same  simple,  straight- 
forward manner ; '  and  with  what  success  we  know. 
Even  truant  Jonah,  angry  Jonah  is  witness  to  the 
efficacy  of  this  kind  of  preaching.  "O  Lord,  was 
not  this  my  saying,  when  I  was  yet  in  my  coun- 
try ?  Therefore  I  fled  to  Tarshish  ;  for  I  know  that 
thou  art  a  gracious  God,  and  merciful,  slow  to  anger, 
and  of  great  kindness,  and  repentest  thee  of  the 
evil."  Which  is  equivalent  to  saying,  "  I  knew  that  if 
I  preached  the  preaching  thou  bad'st  me,  it  would 
persuade  the  Ninevites,  belie  my  words,  and  save 
the  city."  Such  a  preacher  was  Joshua,  when,  acting 
under  his  divine  commission,  he  preached  his  memor- 
able sermon,  "  Choose  ye  this  day  whom  ye  will 
serve."  And  such  was  Elijah  when  he  preached  to 
Ahab  and  to  all  Israel  from  Mount  Carmel.  And 
so  when  Jesus  sent  forth  the  seventy  to  preach  re- 
pentance, faith,  peace  and  salvation,  they  returned 
with  joy,  rejoicing  in  a  successful  ministry.  So  in 
Jerusalem  at  the  day  of  Pentecost,  in  Samaria,  in 
Csesarea,  and  Damascus,  Ephesus,  Athens,  Corinth, 
Rome,  —  everywhere  in  short,  —  some  believed,  and 
some   doubted,  but   multitudes  were   added  to  the 


132  THE   CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

Lord ;  and  all  this  resulted  from  preaching  the 
preaching  the  Lord  bade.  I  know  it  is  common  to 
impute  the  success  of  these  men  of  God  in  the  older 
times  to  their  miraculous  gifts.  But  this  way  of  ac- 
counting for  their  success  betrays  a  pitiable  materi- 
alism, a  most  melancholy  skepticism,  a  shocking  un- 
belief in  God's  unchanging  fidelity*  to  his  ministers. 
Has  he  not  said,  "  Lo,  I  am  with  you  always,  even 
unto  the  end  of  the  world  .? " 

Will  you  venture  to  say,  God  in  those  former  days 
considered  the  unbelief  of  their  hearers,  and  armed 
the  disciples  with  superior  powers,  supplying  all  their 
need,  giving  them  those  gifts  which  were  essential  to 
their  success  ?  To-day  he  has  not  done  so.  We 
have  no  miraculous  powers ;  it  is  therefore  not  our 
fault  that  our  preaching  fails  of  an  equal  measure  of 
success. 

The  second  melancholy  and  mischievous  assump- 
tion is,  that  for  our  day  the  chief  want  of  the  minister 
of  Christ  is  stores  of  learning  and  great  intellectual 
vigor  and  originality.  It  is  often  said,  "  only  by  un- 
wearied study,  can  any  man  sustain  himself  in  the 
pulpit;  none  but  the  thorough  student  can  hope  to 
maintain  his  hold  upon  his  audience."  But  how 
seldom  are  the  claims  of  the  spiritual  life  urged ! 
When  is  it  said.  None  but  he  who  keeps  his  own 
Jieart  with  all  diligence,  none  but  he  who  lives  in 
most  intimate  communion  and  fellowship  with  God 
and  the  Lamb,  can  reach  and  benefit  the  hearts  of 
those  over  whom  the  Holy  Ghost  hath  made  him 


A    SUCCESSFUL    MINISTRY.  1 33 

overseer?  And  yet  the  want  of  success  in  the  min- 
istry must  be  mainly  referred  to  the  lack  of  oneness 
with  Christ.  Ask  any  intelHgent  Christian  in  the 
world,  "  Who  of  all  men,  exerts  the  best  influence  on 
you  ? "  and  his  prompt  answer  will  be,  ''  The  man 
whom  I  esteem  the  holiest  man  of  all  1  know." 

The  man  whose  first  concern  is  to  sustain  himself 
in  the  pulpit  by  forcible  presentations  of  original 
thought,  is  under  a  constant  temptation  to  sacrifice  the 
best  interests  of  his  people  to  a  supposed  necessity 
to  himself.  He  is  no  less  exposed  to  the  tempta- 
tion to  sacrifice  his  own  best  interests  to  a  supposed 
necessity  of  the  people.  The  truth  is,  there  is  one, 
and  but  one  supreme  necessity;  namely,  ''  to  be  filled 
with  the  knowledge  of  Christ's  will,  in  all  wisdom  and 
spiritual  understanding,,  to  walk  worthy  of  the  Lord 
unto  all  pleasing,  being  fruitful  in  every  good  work, 
and  increasing  in  the  knowledge  and  love  of  God." 
This  necessity  swallows  up  all  others,  and  the  man 
who  really  surrenders  himself — soul,  ^ody,  mind, 
and  heart,  —  to  the  claims  of  this  necessity  will,  if  he 
be  a  sensible  and  large-souled  man,  find  all  his  minor 
wants  covered  and  included  in  this.  His  communi- 
cations from  the  Lord  to  his  people  will  be  freshened 
from  the  heart  rather  than  from  the  intellect ;  and 
yet,  if  any  one  thinks  that  the  intellect  of  the  minister 
will  fall  behind  that  of  the  mere  scholar,  he  errs  egre- 
giously,  for  the  intellect  is  ever  a  debtor  to  the  heart 
for  more  than  it  can  pay. 

Is  not  the  complaint  often  made  that  the  people 


134  THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

nowadays  are  sadly  deficient  in  reverence  ?  Is  it 
not  sometimes  said,  The  ministry  are  losing  ground ; 
their  influence  is  much  less  than  in  former  times? 
But  was  there  ever  more  honor  shown  to  intellect  ? 
Was  learning  ever  more  bepraised  than  now  ?  How 
is  it  that  ye  cannot  discern  the  signs  of  the  times  ? 
It  is  because  the  ministry  have  permitted  themselves 
to  be  beguiled  by  misleading  representations  of  the 
comparative  worth  of  natural  science,  and  to  be 
drawn  away  from  the  simplicity  of  the  Gospel,  and 
from  the  love  of  Christ,  that  they  have  lost  ground. 
Is  it  not  true,  dear  friends,  to  your  own  conscious- 
ness, that  the  preaching  of  our  day  lacks  the  tone  of 
God's  voice  ?  Does  it  not  lack  the  savor  of  his  pres- 
ence ?  Can  you  conceive  of  the  Son  of  God  as  ad- 
dressing dying  men  in  the  customary  language  of  the 
modern  pulpit  ?  Is  it  not  too  true  that  the  preaching, 
with  rare  exceptions,  commends  the  preacher,  rather 
than  the  Master?  How,  indeed,  under  the  prevail- 
ing system  of  education,  can  it  be  otherwise  ?  For 
ten,  fifteen,  or  it  may  be  twenty  years,  the  future 
preacher  is  subjected  to  a  training  whose  avowed  and 
exclusive  object  is  to  enable  him  to  do  credit  to  him- 
self and  to  his  alma  mater,  as  a  mathematician,  logi- 
cian, rhetorician  or  poet.  His  future  occupation  is 
not  ignored,  but  proposed  to  him  as  a  profession  in 
which  his  success  is  to  depend  upon  his  proficiency  in 
the  several  departments  of  human  science,  precisely 
as  the  success  of  any  other  man  so  depends.  Of 
course  the  sharpest  discriminations  of  the  class-room 


A    SUCCESSFUL    AiiXISTRY.  I35 

are  neither  to  be  ignored  nor  undervalued  by  the 
minister  of  God ;  but  they  are  to  be  subordinated  by 
the  ceaseless  reminder,  these  are  the  bones,  the  dry 
bones,  upon  which  it  behooves  you  to  prophesy ;  but 
if  the  Spirit  of  God  breathes  not  upon  them,  they 
will  have  no  more  efficacy  to  win  the  hearts  of  men, 
than  skeletons  to  win  the  love  of  timid  children. 

That  this  conviction  is  not  generally  established, 
is  to  be  inferred  with  certainty  from  the  infrequent 
use  made  of  the  preacher's  own  spiritual  experience. 
An  eminent  preacher  on  being  asked  if  he  ever 
preached  or  prayed  beyond  his  own  experience, 
answered  :  "If  I  did  not,  you  would  have  poor 
preaching  and  praying."  Now  is  it  not  entirely  ap- 
parent that  to  preach  and  pray  beyond  one's  own  ex- 
perience can  tend  only  to  poverty .''  So  long  as  in 
preaching  and  in  praying,  he  keeps  to  what  his  own 
experience  witnesses,  the  preacher  speaks  with  an 
irresistible  power ;  exceeding  that  he  begets  doubt, 
both  as  to  what  he  does  believe,  and  also  of  its 
worthiness  to  be  believed.  How  unlike  must  a  ques- 
tionable and  uncertain  testimony  be  to  that  of  the 
beloved  John  !  "  That  which  we  have  seen  and 
heard  declare  we  unto  you,  that  ye  also  may  have 
fellowship  with  us ;  and  truly  our  fellowship  is  with 
the  father  and  with  his  son  Jesus  Christ."  Jesus 
says  of  such  disciples,  "  Ye  are  the  salt  of  the  earth  ; 
ye  are  the  light  of  the  world ;  if  the  salt  have  lost 
its  savor"  —  can  there  be  any  doubt  that  godliness 
is  that  savor  ?  —  "  it  is  henceforth  good  for  nothing 


136  THE   CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

but  to  be  cast  out,  and  to  be  trodden  under  foot  of 
men."  The  prevailing  preaching  has  in  it  a  grain 
of  salt  —  the  text  —  but  how  rarely  does  it  pervade 
the  mass  of  the  discourse ;  how  rarely  is  it  felt  to 
pervade  the  soul  of  the  speaker.  Too  often  it  is 
but  a  motto  to  an  essa}^,  which  is  to  bring  credit  to 
the  writer  as  a  man  of  originality,  of  reading,  of  logic, 
rhetoric,  imagination,  or  what  you  will  but  the  fruit 
of  intimate  communion  with  the  Lord,  and  an  over- 
mastering concern  to  win  every  one  of  his  hearers  to 
the  largest  measure  of  the  same  blessedness. 
■  That  the  pulpit  needs  all  the  intellectual  power 
that  can  be  can  be  called  to  its  service  is  too  plain 
to  be  denied.  Still  it  remains  true  that  the  want  of 
intellectual  power  is  not  our  greatest  want.  The 
fiftieth  Psalm  applies  to  us  as  truly  as  to  the  ancient 
Israelites.  "  I  know  all  the  fowls  of  the  mountains, 
and  the  wild  beasts  of  the  fields  are  mine.  If  I 
were  hungry  I  would  not  tell  thee  ;  for  the  world  is 
mine  and  the  fulness  thereof."  God  is  in  no  re- 
spect dependent  upon  our  powers  or  researches.  He 
has  declared  most  explicitly,  over  and  over  again, 
that  our  strength  is  in  him  ;  and  pre-eminently  that 
our  power  is  in  Christ ;  in  God  manifested  in  the 
flesh.  The  true  reason  for  the  diminished  and  un- 
satisfying results  of  preaching  is  to  be  found  in 
the  fact  that  preachers  and  hearers  are  so  little  in 
Christ ;  in  that  Christ  and  his  Spirit  are  so  little 
in  them. 

Paul  says,  "  I  am  not  ashamed  of  the  Gospel  of 


A    SUCCESSFUL    MINISTRY.  137 

Christ,  for  it  is  the  power  of  God  unto  salvation  to 
every  one  that  believeth."     But  the  Gospel  of  Christ 
is  not  an  intellectual  doctrine ;  it  is  a   life,  and  its 
power  is  in  that  life.     Christ  was  the  very  Word  of 
God,  the  visible   audible  utterance  of  the  very  life 
of  God ;  and   it  was  not  until  he  had  secured   this 
life  to  man  that  he  said,  "  I  have  finished  the  work 
thou  gavest  me  to  do."     And  yet  men   who  have 
little  or  none  of  this  life,  wonder  that  their  endeavors 
to  save  men  are  of  so  little  avail  ;  wonder,  in  effect, 
that  they  do  not  impart  a  life  which  they  themselves 
do   not  possess.     They  have,  in  truth,  never  '^sep- 
arated    themselves    unto   this    wisdom."      Nor  is  it 
strange  that  they  have  not,  when  the  influence  of  our 
educational   system   is  considered;    for   in  the  first 
place,  our  educational  system  from  the  beginning  to 
the   end,   is   an  unyielding   mould.      Our   5^outh    of 
whatever  metal  are  to  be  run  in  this  mould.     They 
are  to  be  formed  to  one  pattern,  and  that  pattern  is 
not  Christ,  but  the  commanding  minds  most  deferred 
to  in  the  several  schools  of  learnino- 

o 

1.  The  characteristic  mould  or  type  in  our  day,  is 
nicety  in  metaphysical  discrimination,  and  logical 
and  rhetorical  ability  in  the  application  of  such  dis- 
crimination, to  the  handling  of  a  text  of  Scripture. 

2.  Success  in  this  line  of  things  cannot  in  reason 
regard  the  conversion  of  man  to  God,  as  more  than 
an  incidental  result,  of /r^^^^^/^  occurrence. 

3.  The  way  of  progress  in  such  success  is  very 
unlike  glorying  in  the  Cross  of  Christ.     So  far  from 


138  THE   CHRISTIAN   MINISTRY. 

enabling  the  preacher  to  forget  hhnself  in  his  devo- 
tion to  Christ,  it  makes  an  inexorable  demand  upon 
him  ever  to  remember  the  metaphysical  rock  from 
whence  he  was  hewn,  and  to  see  that  he  does  no 
discredit  to  his  origin. 

4.  To  preach  Christ  and  him  crucified  demands 
precisely  that  for  which  Christ  prayed  ;  "  Sanctify 
them  through  thy  truth  ;  that  they  all  may  be  one, 
as  thou  Father  art  in  me,  and  I  in  thee ;  that  they 
also  may  be  one  in  us  ;  that  the  world  7nay  believe 
that  thou  hast  sent  me^  How  unlike  is  this  to  re- 
liance upon  intellectual  ability  in  essay  writing ! 
The  power  to  convince  and  to  convert  men  is  de- 
clared to  be  mainly  in  the  manifest  imion  of  the  dis- 
ciple to  his  Lord. 

5.  The  evil  in  our  educational  system  is  a  self- 
perpetuating  evil ;  because  each  teacher,  by  his  yearly 
routine,  is  evermore  confirming  himself  in  his  prefer- 
ence for  experts  in  his  own  line  of  things.  So  long 
as  the  professional  bias  of  such  minds  is  not  con- 
trolled by  a  superabounding  devotion  to  Christ  and 
his  Cross,  how  can  they  do  otherwise  than  go  on 
creating  men  in  their  own  image  ?  And  thus  it 
comes  about,  that  much  of  the  preaching  of  our  day 
is  so  far  the  mere  product  of  the  intellect,  that  an 
unconverted  man  might  preach  it  as  readily  as  any 
other.  It  does  not  demand  that  a  man  should  be 
"  filled  with  the  knowledge  of  God's  will,  in  all  wis- 
dom and  spiritual  understanding ;  "  nor  insist  that 
"  he  walk  worthy  of  the  Lord  unto  all  pleasing,  being 


A   SUCCESSFUL    MINISTRY.  1 39 

fruitful  in  every  good  work."  It  loses  sight  alike  of 
"the  wrath  of  God  revealed  from  heaven  against 
all  ungodliness,"  of  the  love  of  God  in  "  setting 
forth  Christ  to  be  a  propitiation  through  faith  in  His 
blood,"  and  of  sanctification  through  the  indwelling 
of  the  Holy  Ghost.  It  does  not  search  out  the  pres- 
ent wants  of  every  heart,  and  minister  Christ  as  the 
sufficient  supply  for  that  want,  the  bread  of  life  to 
every  man. 

How  indeed  can  any  man  so  recommend  Christ 
who  has  not  himself  so  lived  upon  Christ  ?  The 
power  of  the  minister  of  Christ  is  in  his  being  able 
to  testify  that  he  has  himself  found  Christ,  and  found 
him  able  to  save  to  the  uttermost,  all  who  come 
unto  God  by  him.  And  not  only  to  save  them  from 
future  final  perdition,  but  also  to  supply  all  their 
present  need  ;  to  fill  and  to  satisfy  every  longing  of 
the  heart.  When  the  speaker  has  himself  evidently 
abandoned  all  for  Christ,  then  his  recommendation 
to  his  hearers  to  do  so,  is  enforced  by  an  irresistible 
argument.  That  logic  and  rhetoric  do  not  convert 
men  is  a  matter  of  notoriety,  and  of  frequent  and 
sorrowful  confession.  "  Somehow  our  preaching 
fails  to  secure  the  results  we  desire  "  ;  and  men  look 
here  and  there  for  the  cause  of  the  failure.  Some- 
times it  is  charged  upon  the  people,  that  an  itching 
ear  for  novelties  is  the  neutralizing  force.  On  the 
other  hand,  sometimes  the  preacher  is  accused  of 
indolence,  or  lack  of  eloquence.  Were  a  convention 
of  ministers  and  people  called  together,  doubtless 


140  THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

each  would  be  ready  to  refer  the  evil  to  some  fault 
in  the  other;  and  without  doubt  the  existing  evil 
may  be  referred  to  the  one  as  well  as  to  the 
other. 

It  is  not  to  be  denied  that  the  people  have  very 
generally  come  to  demand  a  preacher  in  whom  they 
can  glory  as  being  original,  logical,  learned,  or  elo- 
quent, above  other  men  ;  in  anything,  in  short,  but 
that  he  is  a  simple-hearted  man  of  God,  "  who  will 
not  shun  to  declare  the  whole  counsel  of  God,  speak- 
ing the  truth  in  love,  not  in  the  words  which  man's 
wisdom  teacheth,  but  which  the  Holy  Spirit  teach- 
eth,  comparing  spiritual  things  with  spiritual."  It 
is,  alas,  only  too  well  understood,  that  wide  depart- 
ures from  the  explicit  and  unmistakable  teachings 
of  our  Lord  are  to  be  ignored,  or  endured,  in  con- 
sideration of  the  eloquence  or  the  originality  of  the 
candidate  for  the  pulpit. 

Does  not  this  account  for  the  inefficacy  of  the  pre- 
vailing methods  of  preaching,  that  men  ask  and  re- 
ceive not  simply  and  evidently  what  God  has  said, 
but  variations  upon  some  scriptural  theme,  in  the 
progress  of  which  the  theme  may  now  and  then  be 
recognized ;  but  that  which  specially  interests  us,  is 
the  preacher's  ingenuity  in  extracting  from  it  so 
much  that  would  never,  by  any  possibility,  have  oc- 
curred to  us  ?  Is  there  any  just  ground  for  wonder 
that  such  preaching  fails  to  convert  men  to  God  ? 
So  far  from  being  the  glorious  Gospel  of  the  blessed 
God,  is  it  not  the  logic,  rhetoric,  and  learning  of  the 


A    SUCCESSFUL    MINISTRY.  14! 

schools,  the  elaborations  of  man's  wisdom  ?  How 
many  men  in  a  hundred  could  truly  say  with  John 
Angell  James,  "  I  set  out  in  my  ministry,  even  when 
a  student,  with  the  idea  of  usefuhiess  so  deeply  im- 
printed on  my  heart,  and  so  constantly  present  to 
my  thoughts,  that  I  never  lose  sight  of  it  long  to- 
gether ;  and  I  mean  usefulness  of  one  kind,  that  is, 
the  direct  conversion  of  souls." 

What  shall  be  thought  of  the  multitudes  of  preach- 
ers, who,  professing  to  believe  themselves  moved  by 
the  Holy  Ghost  to  take  upon  them  this  office,  are 
content  to  go  on  in  a  way  that  fails  to  conduct  them 
to  this  desired  result  ?  What  can  we  think,  seeing 
as  we  do,  that  no  parallel  to  this  course  can  be 
found  in  the  whole  range  of  human  endeavor  ?  In 
every  other  department  of  effort  the  thing  that  will 
not  effect  its  object  is  abandoned.  Is  it  to  be  be- 
lieved that  in  pleading  with  men  to  be  reconciled  to 
God,  there  is  neither  sun  nor  star  to  shed  a  ray  of 
light  upon  our  pathway ;  but  that  we  must  needs 
stumble  on  forever,  referring  the  failure  of  our  un- 
productive labor  to  the  sovereignty  of  God  ? 

Unspiritual  ministers  will  no  doubt  persist  in  their 
discouraging  endeavors  in  one  way  and  another,  to 
account  for,  or  to  submit  to,  the  average  results  of 
the  scholastic  methods  of  treating  Bible  texts.  But 
surely  it  is  high  time  for  spiritually-minded  men  to 
begin  to  realize  that  the  promise  of  the  Holy  Ghost 
was  given  to  all  believers ;  and  that  those  who  wait, 
expect,  and  earnestly  pray  for  this  transcendent  gift, 


142  THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

will  be  endowed  with  power  from  on  high,  and  their 
labor  will  not  be  in  vain  in  the  Lord. 

If  the  present  system  of  education  for  the  ministry 
of  salvation,  did  but  secure  at  once  the  greatest  abil- 
ity to  get  near  to  men,  and  inspire  the  determination 
to  use  that  nearness  to  impart  both  the  words  and 
the  spirit  of  Christ,  it  would  be  unreasonable  to 
complain  of  it;  but  so  long  as  its  pupils -come  to  us 
in  the  character  of  essayists,  rather  than  in  that  of 
ambassadors  of  Christ,  whose  credentials  are  most 
evidently  from  the  Master,  we  cannot  but  demand. 
How  long  will  you  persist  in  exhausting  and  fruitless 
endeavors?  In  the  words  of  Mr.  James,  "without 
the  unction  which  spirituality  of  mind  alone  can  im- 
part, your  most  elaborate  sermons  will  be  like  the 
cold  beams  of  a  wintry  moon,  falling  upon  the  icy 
bosom  of  the  frozen  lake." 

It  is  to  be  feared  that  many  and  many  a  man  goes 
into  the  Christian  ministry  because  it  is  a  position  of 
dignity  and  honor,  because  of  the  intellectual  occu- 
pation it  offers,  and  not  because  he  has  a  passion  for 
saving  souls,  and  for  building  up  Christians  in  faith 
and  holiness.  Ground  for  this  fear  is  found  in  their 
neglect  of  such  endeavors  while  yet  in  training  for 
the  ministry.  With  the  ardent  desire  to  be  always 
doing  good,  the  desire  to  secure  the  most  perfect 
training  for  future  usefulness  could  combine ;  and 
the  effect  would  surely  be  to  impel  the  student  upon 
Sabbath-school,  Bible-class,  prayer  meeting,  and  all 
similar  efforts.      "  All   this,"  to   quote  Mr.   James 


A   SUCCESSFUL    MINISTRY.  I43 

again,  "  would  keep  up  the  divine  life,  and  increase 
his  fervor  for  saving  souls,  while  it  would  give  a 
habit  and  facility  for  free  speech,  and  render  him, 
when  he  becomes  a  preacher,  independent  of  his 
notes.  It  will  also  beget  a  habit  of  right-preaching, 
both  as  to  matter  and  manner,  and  produce  that 
kind  of  direct  address,  instead  of  essay-like  stiffness 
and  formality,  which  is  desirable  for  popular  and 
useful  preaching."  For  the  lack  of  this,  how  many 
hearers  have  testified,  "  Under  Mr.  A.'s  preaching  I 
do  not  remember  to  have  received  any  religious  im- 
pressions whatever." 

To  be  resigned  to  such  a  failure  as  this,  is  to  be 
criminally  indifferent  to  duty. 

Within  a  few  years  three  men  of  almost  unequalled 
usefulness  have  finished  a  long  service  in  the  minis- 
try with  joy,  and  have  gone  home  to  heaven  with 
many  stars  in  their  crowns,  —  Richard  Knill,  James 
Sherman,  and  John  Angell  James.  Differing  greatly 
in  many  particulars,  in  some  points  their  resemblance 
was  very  striking.  They  were  all  called  to  the  min- 
istry out  of  circumstances  extremely  unpromising. 
Their  education,  as  compared  with  what  is  now  the 
usual  training  of  our  ministers,  was  almost  nothing. 
They  were  alike  in  being  filled  with  a  single-hearted 
desire  to  save  souls  and  to  honor  Christ ;  alike  in 
the  possession  of  fervent,  generous  affections ;  alike 
in  their  success  in  winning  souls  to  Christ.  Before 
Knill's  death  he  knew  of  one  hundred  persons  con- 
verted under  his  ministry,  who,  in  one  form  or  an- 


144  THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

Other,  had  themselves  become  ministers  of  Christ. 
Eighty-four  persons,  says  Sherman's  biographer, 
joined  the  church  in  Surrey  Chapel,  who  attributed 
their  conversion  to  one  and  the  same  sermon.  Alike 
result  came  of  one  sermon  preached  by  Mr.  Sherman 
during  his  ministry  at  Reading.  Mr.  James  began 
when  he  was  a  little  more  than  nineteen  years  old 
with  fifty  church  members,  who  before  hi^  death  had 
increased  to  a  thousand. 

In  education  and  in  strength  of  intellect  far  infe- 
rior to  Luther,  they  resembled  the  great  reformer  in 
uncompromising  devotion  to  the  extension  of  Christ's 
kingdom.  All  of  these  knew  how  to  set  their  men 
to  work  ;  to  cherish  and  augment  the  gifts  and  graces 
of  the  flocks  over  which  the  Holy  Ghost  made  them 
overseers.  They  brought  the  cup  of  salvation  to  the 
lips  of  the  humblest.  The  Surrey  Chapel  Church, 
under  Mr.  Sherman,  organized  and  maintained 
eleven  Sabbath-schools,  with  four  hundred  and  fifty 
teachers,  and  more  than  three  thousand  scholars. 
While  at  Reading  he  proposed  the  erection  of  seven 
chapels  in  as  many  adjacent  towns  and  villages,  from 
three  to  eight  miles  distant,  most  of  them  of  stone, 
with  towers  and  bells,  in  which  worship,  generally 
under  lay  conduct,  was  permanently  established. 
And  the  men  who  achieved  such  blessed  results 
were  men  who  preached  the  word  in  season  and  out 
of  season.  And  what  were  the  characteristics  of 
their  sermons,  think  you  ?  Did  they  abound  in  meta- 
physical hair-splittings  ?  in  wonderful  exhibitions  of 


A    SUCCESSFUL    MINISTRY.    .  145 

originality  ?  Nay,  but  they  had  their  freshness  from 
the  heart,  from  close  and  tender  sympathy  and  fel- 
lowship with  Jesus. 

What,  then,  was  the  secret  of  their  success  ? 
Wherein  did  their  strength  lie  ?  James  says  of  him- 
self, "  The  character  of  my  mind  being  eminently 
and  unalterably  practical,  I  have  had  neither  the 
taste  nor  the  ability  for  metaphysical  speculation,  or 
theological  profundities.  I  am  neither  philosopher 
nor  critic  ;  and  can  give  no  emendations  of  difficult 
or  doubtful  passages,  and  no  new  theories  of  par- 
ticular texts  or  general  doctrines.  I  cannot  add  to 
the  stock  of  sacred  literature,  or  enlarge  the  stores 
of  any  who  are  well  read  in  divinity.  I  lack  the 
powder  of  invention,  and  have  no  originality.  Oue 
thing  I  do  possess  and  have  retained,  and  that  is  a 
clear  understanding  of  the  objects  of  the  ministry. 
'  They  watch  for  souls,  as  they  that  must  give  ac- 
count,' has  been  my  motto  ;  and  a  constant  aim  at 
conversion  has  been  my  aim.  I  have  always  con- 
sidered that  a  minister  does  as  much  by  his  heart  as 
he  does  by  his  head.  A  cold  intellectuality,  a  mere 
scientific  mode  of  preaching,  will  do  little  good.  I 
have  been  enabled  to  keep  hold  of  the  heart  of  the 
people  by  my  own  heart  being  much  shown  to  them 
in  all  my  intercourse  with  them.  They  knew  I  loved 
them,  and  love  begets  love.  No  minister  can  be  a 
good  and  efficient  preacher  of  the  Gospel  who  does 
not  produce  on  the  minds  of  his  hearers  the  convic- 
tion, This  man   is   intent  on  saving  our  souls  ;  he 


146  THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

would  save  us  if  he  could.  I  am  more  than  ever 
convinced  that  the  kind  of  preaching  which  is  wanted 
at  the  present  day  is  a  combination  of  the  intellectual, 
doctrinal,  experimental,  and  practical  sermons,  com- 
ing from  the  head  through  the  heart,  or  from  the 
heart  through  the  head.  It  is  the  old  matter  with 
new  accidents  ;  the  matter  of  the  past  age  in  the 
style  of  the  present.  From  the  heart  to  the  heart  is 
the  great  canon." 

Said  the  theological  students  of  him,  "  Over  all 
our  conversations  the  remarkable  thing  was,  his 
heart  poured  the  fulness  of  his  love,  and  our  hearts 
were  won  to  his  by  the  glow  of  its  genial  friendli- 
ness. He  invariably  knelt  before  God  .at  the  close 
of  our  interviews.  After  prayer  from  one  of  us,  his 
own  tender  and  affectionate  intercessions  were  pre- 
sented. We  then  learned  how  to  pray  ;  the  heart 
was  stirred  to  its  depth  ;  the  fountains  of  sympa- 
thetic desire  were  unsealed."  "  I  have  often,"  says 
one,  "been  melted  into  tears  by  his  earnest  supplica- 
tions in  our  behalf."  Mr.  James  well  knew  and  said, 
"  Preaching  does  not  exercise  and  strengthen  the 
gentleness,  the  patience,  the  perseverance  which  are 
developed  by  the  more  private  functions  of  the  min- 
istry ;  the  visitations  of  the  sick,  and  the  troubled, 
and  the  poor." 

Says  his  son,  "  A  shrewd  Wesleyan  once  remarked 
to  me  that  my  father  owed  much  of  his  success  in 
the  pulpit  to  his  diluting  his  meaning  down  to  the 
precise  degree  at  which  it  was  most  easily  appre- 


A   SUCCESSFUL    MINISTRY.  I47 

hended  by  a  common  congregation."  "  He  never 
forgot  that  to  demonstrate  is  not  always  to  convince; 
nor  to  convince  always  to  persuade.  A  gulf,  broad 
and  deep,  often  lies  between  the  judgment  and  the 
will,  and  he  endeavored  to  bridge  it  over.  Hence 
his  sermons  would  never  by  any  accident  be  called 
intellectual.  That  term  has  been  applied  of  late 
years  as  an  epithet  of  honor  to  describe  a  style  of 
preaching  which  is  deficient  in  all  that  distinguishes 
eloquence  from  instruction."  "  We  have  to  do,"  ex- 
claims Mr.  James  in  his  "  Earnest  Ministry,"  "  not 
only  with  a  dark  intellect  that  needs  to  be  instructed, 
but  with  a  hard  heart  that  needs  to  be  impressed, 
and  a  torpid  conscience  that  needs  to  be  awakened  ; 
and  have  to  make  our  hearers  feel  that  in  the  great 
business  of  religion  there  is  much  to  be  done,  as  well 
as  much  to  be  known," 

"  There  was  one  characteristic  of  his  preaching  by 
which  he  often  made  a  very  deep  impression ;  I  mean 
the  freedom  with  which  he  employed  arguments  and 
appeals  derived  from  his  physical  infirmities,  his 
domestic  sorrows,  his  affection  for  his  people,  and 
their  affection  for  him.  He  was  incessantly  preach- 
ing to  particular  classes  on  their  peculiar  duties  and 
dangers.  Very  few  of  his  ethical  sermons  were 
preached  on  isolated  texts  chosen  for  the  purpose. 
He  expounded  in  course  many  of  the  books  both  of 
the  Old  Testament  and  the  New^  His  expository 
sermons  were  very  unpretentious,  but  w^ere  marked 
by   sound    judgment,    and    were   very   instructive." 


148  THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

Above  all  he  was  an  eminently  holy  man.  "  Science 
and  literature,"  he  said,  "to  be  useful  to  a  minister 
of  Jesus  Christ,  must  be  held  in  solution  by  eminent 
religion."  And  as  he  spake,  so  he  lived.  "  A 
saintly  man  is  a  means  of  grace  to  all  who  know 
him.  The  love  and  respect  he  inspires,  the  pleasure 
of  possessing  his  approbation,  and  the  fear  of  incur- 
ring his  rebuke,  are  aids  to  holy  living."  Such  a  man 
could  use  plainness  of  speech.  He  did  :  "  You  know 
how  earnestly  and  how  anxiously  I  have  reminded 
you  that  to  be  a  church-member  is  not  at  all  the 
same  thing  as  being  a  Christian  ;  how  often  and  how 
emphatically  I  have  told  you  that  many  will  spend 
their  eternity  in  the  bottomless  pit  with  Satan  and 
his  angels  who  have  spent  their  time  on  earth  in  the 
nominal  fellowship  of  the  church  of  Christ." 

Of  Sherman,  his  biographer  says :  "  No  claim  to 
intellectual  greatness  or  originality  is  made  for  him. 
He  freely  and  admiringly  admitted  the  superiority  of 
many  of  his  brethren.  His  inner  life  was  neither 
profound  nor  distinctive  ;  it  was  simply  intensely 
fervent."  A  weakly  lad,  of  poor  parentage,  he  was 
early  apprenticed  to  an  ivory  turner.  After  a  year 
or  two,  on  account  of  ill-health,  his  indenture  was 
given  up  to  him,  and  having  been  converted,  he 
cherished  the  hope  of  preaching  the  Gospel.  Three 
short  sessions  at  Cheshunt  College,  which  he  entered 
at  nineteen,  comprised  the  whole  of  his  preparation 
for  the  ministry  ;  and  yet,  from  the  very  beginning,  it 
was  a  ministry  of  great  usefulness,  an  eminently  sue- 


A    SUCCESSFUL    MINISTRY.  I49 

cessful  ministry.  How  it  became  such  is  revealed 
by  his  own  pen  :  "  I  found  it  easier  to  preach  a  hun- 
dred sermons  than  to  conquer  one  evil  passion.  He 
who  seeks  to  make  his  preaching  and  his  practice 
correspond  will  have  many  sacrifices  of  natural  in- 
clination to  make.  And  if  he  do  not  make  them,  he 
may  with  certainty  calculate  upon  strong  prejudices 
against  him  arising  in  many  pious  minds;  prejudices 
springing  from  a  jealousy  for  the  Lord  of  Hosts, 
sometimes,  perhaps,  severe  and  puritanical,  but  on 
the  whole  commendable  and  beneficial.  If,  there- 
fore, he  will  not  fight  out  of  the  pulpit,  he  cannot 
reign  in  it.  My  best  preparations  for  the  pulpit 
were,  reasonable  study,  a  visit  to  the  sick,  and  a 
quarter  of  an  hour  with  God.  On  my  first  settle- 
ment (after  three  years' evangelizing)  every  sitting  in 
the  spacious  chapel  in  Reading,  said  to  hold  twelve 
hundred  persons,  was  soon  let ;  and  for  years  the 
aisles  were  all  filled  at  almost  every  service.  This 
surprised  no  one  more  than  myself.  The  ministry 
was  neither  original,  nor  learned,  nor  intellectual, 
nor  mythical,  nor  comical.  Its  doctrines  were  those 
usually  st3ded  moderate  Calvinism.  Its  style  was 
plain  and  pointed,  and  the  savor  of  the  Gospel  was 
in  every  sermon  ;  and  the  truth  was  delivered  with 
earnestness  and  practical  application.  A  course  of 
visitation  was  necessary  to  acquaint  me  with  the  reli- 
gious state  and  habits  of  the  people,  which  I  imme- 
diately commenced."  A  contemporary  during  his 
Reading  ministry  says  of  him,  "You  know  his  inim- 


150  THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

itable  pathos  both  in  prayer  and  preaching.  A  care- 
less Sabbath-breaking  man  stumbled  into  his  chapel 
one  Sunday  morning  when  he  was  engaged  in  prayer. 
He  took  his  stand  in  the  aisle,  and  seeing  the  tears 
rolling  down  the  minister's  cheeks  and  falling  upon 
the  book  as  he  was  pleading  for  the  conversion  of 
sinners,  he  was  arrested,  and  said  to  himself:  This 
man  is  evidently  in  earnest;  there  must  be  some- 
thing in  the  condition  of  sinners  which  I  do  not  un- 
derstand. He  remained,  and  was  instructed,  and 
converted." 

Of  Knill,  Mr.  James  says,  "  His  usefulness  in  the 
conversion  of  souls  to  God  was  perhaps  greater  than 
that  of  any  other  man  in  this  kingdom.  Wherever 
he  labored,  whether  in  the  villages  of  Devon,  in 
India,  in  Russia,  or  in  the  various  parts  of  England, 
he  was  instrumental  in  awakening  the  impenitent  and 
careless  to  a  deep  concern  for  their  eternal  welfare. 
He  entered  every  place  with  that  object  in  view,  and 
in  very  few  instances  left  without  having  in  some 
measure  accomplished  it.  His  usefulness  lay  not 
exclusively  among  the  poor  ;  many  persons  of  educa- 
tion, intelligence,  and  station  were  brought  through 
him  under  the  influence  of  evangelical  religion." 

Says  his  biographer,  "  There  was  no  class  of  per- 
sons whom  he  feared  to  encounter,  or  despaired  of 
blessing.  When  one  day  about  to  enter  a  carriage  at 
the  Chester  Railway  Station,  he  observed  some  offi- 
cers putting  some  chained  prisoners  into  an  apart- 
ment of  an  inferior  carriage  by  themselves.     He  was 


A    SUCCESSFUL    MINISTRY.  15I 

immediately  touched  with  compassion,  and  begged  to 
be  allowed  to  accompany  them.  The  officers  seemed 
surprised  at  his  request,  but  made  no  objection.  He 
spoke  to  them  with  such  power  that  most  of  them 
were  in  tears,  and  before  he  left  he  knelt  down  at 
their  request,  and  offered  up  fervent  prayers  for  their 
reconciliation  both  to  man  and  God.  In  India  Mr. 
Knill  gained  much  influence  over  the  officers.  His 
sincere,  open,  and  direct  manner  suited  their  taste. 
'  What  do  you  missionaries  mean,'  said  one  of 
them  ;  '  do  you  think  that  poor  black  fellow  will  be 
damned  ? '  'I  hope  not,'  was  the  answer  ;  '  but  if 
he  is,  I  think  his  punishment  will  be  very  light 
compared  with  yours,  if  you  neglect  God.'  '  I  be- 
lieve it,'  said  the  officer,  '  I  have  long  thought  so.' 
Another,  whose  conscience  had  been  aroused,  but 
who  still  clung  to  his  sins,  one  morning  called  and 
sought  to  get  into  an  argument,  '  There  are  many 
things  in  the  Bible,  sir,  impossible  to  be  understood.' 
'  There  are,  sir,'  was  the  reply,  '  but  the  seventh 
commandment  is  very  plain.'  The  controversy 
ended." 

"  Such  a  man's  life,"  said  Mr.  James,  "  should  be 
a  study.  He  was  no  orator  in  the  conventional 
meaning  of  that  term,  yet  had  he  the  power  of  rous- 
ing, fixing,  and  holding  the  attention  of  an  audience 
far  above  what  most  elaborate  and  intellectual 
preachers  possess.  His  eloquence  was  that  of  the 
heart,  gushing  out  in  streams  of  impassioned  feeling 
w  hich  carried  away  his  hearers  on  the  tide  of  his  own 


152  THE   CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

emotion  ;  the  eloquence  of  a  man  on  fire  with  zeal 
for  God,  and  melted  into  compassion  for  souls  hover- 
ing on  the  verge  of  the  bottomless  pit ;  the  eloquence 
of  faith  and  love.  He  set  out  in  life  with  the  adop- 
tion of  that  mighty,  impulsive,  and  glorious  word, 
usefulness^  and  usefulness  with  him  meant  converting 
sinners.  He  yearned  for  the  salvation  of  souls.  It 
was  with  him  not  merely  a  principle  or  a  privilege, 
but  a  passion.  For  this  he  longed  and  prayed  in 
the  closet,  wrote  in  the  study,  labored  in  the  pulpit, 
conversed  in  the  parlor,  admonished,  counselled  and 
warned,  wherever  he  went."  And  what  James  said 
of  Knill  might  be  said  of  himself  probably  with  equal 
truth. 

With  such  facts,  so  authenticated,  concerning  the 
ministry  of  James,  of  Knill,  and  of  Sherman,  is  it 
conceivable  that  any  man  called  of  God  to  be  His 
minister  can  fail  to  search  out  the  secret  of  such  suc- 
cesses .''  Would  any  like  record  of  success  in  amass- 
ing money  be  permitted  to  escape  the  scrutiny  of  the 
wiser  children  of  this  world,  think  you  1  No,  indeed  ! 
Nothing  could  divert  them ;  nothing  arrest  their  in- 
exorable determination  to  master  and  utilize  the 
secret.  Fling  to  men  called  of  God  the  golden 
apples  of  scholastic  eminence,  astute  or  profound 
theories  of  what  ^/^^/^/ to  secure  the  largest  influence, 
and  elevate  them  to  the  very  climax  of  success,  — 
would  these  lure  their  attention  from  the  methods  of 
the  men  who  were  actually  bringing  souls  to  Jesus 
day  by  day  ?    Judge  ye. 


A    SUCCESSFUL    MINISTRY.  1 53 

The  natural  qualifications  of  a  successful  ministry 
are  not  possessed  in  equal  degrees  by  all  men,  but 
the  following  need  only  to  be  named  to  be  acknowl- 
edged to  be  within  the  reach  of  all  earnest  aspir- 
ants :  — 

1.  Industry  ;  involving  a  deep  sense  of  the  worth 
of  time  and  a  vigorous  determination  to  make  the 
most  of  it. 

2.  Kindliness  ;  amounting  to  generosity,  and  a 
pleasure  in  doing  anything  for  others,  a  delight  in 
making  others  happy. 

3.  The  abnegation  of  self,  as  an  object  of  pursuit, 
either  for  indulgence  or  for  aggrandizement. 

4.  That  thorough  appreciation  of  truth  which 
makes  one  too  sensible  of  his  own  ignorance  to  per- 
mit the  least  self-complacency. 

5.  Utter  intolerance  of  faults  in  one's  self ;  an  in- 
exorable determination  in  Christ  and  through  Christ 
to  conquer  every  fault. 

6.  Great  candor  and  readiness  to  make  allowance 
for  the  faults  of  others,  yet  never  losing  nor  obscur- 
ing the  sharp  distinction  between  right  and  wrong. 

7.  Quick  sensibility  to  the  sufferings  of  others,  and 
desire  to  alleviate  them. 

The  spiritual  qualifications  for  a  successful  minis- 
try are  most  surely  to  be  had  for  the  asking.  "  Your 
Heavenly  Father  is  more  willing  to  give  his  Spirit  to 
them  that  ask  him  than  parents  to  give  good  gifts  to 
their  children." 

This  promise  of  the  Father,  for  which  Jesus  bade 


154  THE   CllRISTIAN   MINISTRY. 

the  disciples  tarry  in  Jerusalem,  includes  all  gifts, 
since  it  promotes  and  vitalizes  all  gifts.  "  The  fruit 
of  the  Spirit  is  love,  joy,  peace,  long-suffering,  gen- 
tleness, goodness,  faith,  meekness,  temperance."  This 
fruit  of  the  Spirit  will,  in  our  time,  ripen  into  a  habit 
of  daily  and  hourly  dedication  and  surrender  of  our- 
selves to  Christ,  the  reality  of  which  will  appear  in 
the  following  particulars  :  — 

1.  In  a  willingness  to  be  useful  in  the  humblest 
ways ;  in  ways  that  bring  no  honor  to  one's  self,  but 
on  the  contrary  expose  us  to  scorn  and  rudeness. 
This  includes  the  desire  and  determination  to  find 
out  what  God  wishes  me  to  do,  and  to  do  that ;  and 
also  the  unwavering  conviction  that  the  Holy  Ghost, 
dwelling  in  me  as  an  infallible  teacher  and  guide,  all 
my  experiences  are  ordered  to  the  furtherance  of  the 
Gospel. 

2.  In  an  inflexible  determination  to  lose  no  oppor- 
tunity of  recommending  Christ  in  casual  interviews, 
on  brief  acquaintance,  apropos  to  anything,  cultivat- 
ing an  aptitude  for  religious  conversation,  and  for 
the  felicitous  quotation  of  some  message  from  the 
Bible,  sustained  by  pertinent  illustration  from  our 
own  experience. 

3.  In  an  habitual  care  to  please  our  neighbor  for 
his  good,  to  edification. 

4.  In  a  willingness  to  risk  failure,  in  efforts  that 
permit  the  hope  of  success,  when  success  will  spe- 
cially honor  God  and  benefit  man. 

5.  In  a  veritable  and  controlling  reliance  upon  the 


A    SUCCESSFUL    MINISTRY.  155 

Holy  Ghost  for  general  guidance  ;  and  also  for  direc- 
tion even  in  minute  details,  when  such  guidance  and 
direction  will  secure  valuable  ends  ;  and  above  all 
contribute  to  sustain  an  unwavering  reliance  upon 
Him  for  that  divine  inspiration  without  which  the 
best  words  will  be  empty ;  but  with  which  the  weak- 
est words  will  have  power  to  convince,  convert,  and 
sanctify. 

6.  In  a  special,  intelligent,  and  invincible  deter- 
mination to  honor  God  by  always  giving  prominence 
to  His  Word,  relying  on  that  to  convert  and  instruct 
men. 

7.  In  a  confident  reliance  upon  God  to  supply 'all 
our  need,  so  strong  as  to  prevent  the  utterance  of  a 
single  complaint  of  neglect,  of  actual  or  of  antici- 
pated want,  to  any  one  but  God  ;  thus  enabling  us 
to  say  in  perfect  truth,  "  I  have  learned  in  whatso- 
ever state  I  am,  to  be  therewith  content." 

8.  In  a  fellowship  with  Jesus,  so  real,  tender,  con- 
stant, and  controlling,  as  to  be  by  far  the  most  real 
thing  in  life. 

He  who  has  these  fruits  of  the  Spirit  cannot  but 
have  a  successful  ministry.  "  This  is  the  record  God 
hath  given  unto  us,  eternal  life ;  and  this  life  is  in 
his  Son,"  —  whoever  liveth  to  make  intercession  for 
us  before  the  throne  ;  and  by  his  Spirit  dwelling  in 
us,  grants  us  daily,  hourly,  and  ceaseless  communion 
and  fellowship  with  himself,  and  in  so  doing  gives  us 
power  to  impart  life  to  others. 


156  THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

One  of  the  last  acts  of  that  noble  servant  of  Christ, 
John  Angell  James,  of  Birmingham,  England,  was 
his  writing,  at  the  request  of  the  biographer,  a  brief 
summing  up  of  the  life  of  Richard  Knill  ;  that  he 
might  strongly  commend  to  candidates  for  the  min- 
istr}^  some  of  the  characteristics  of  Knill's  superior 
usefulness. 

He  says  Mr.  Knill  was  no  ordinary  man.  His 
usefulness  in  the  way  of  conversion  of  souls  to  God 
was  perhaps  greater,  all  things  taken  into  the  ac- 
count, than  that  of  any  other  man  of  his  day  in  this 
kingdom.  Wherever  he  labored,  whether  in  the 
villages  of  Devonshire,  in  India,  in  Russia,  or  in  the 
various  parts  of  England,  he  was  instrumental  in 
awakening  the  impenitent  and  careless  to  a  deep 
concern  for  their  eternal  welfare.  He  entered  every 
place  with  that  object  in  view,  and  in  very  few  in- 
stances left  without  having  in  some  measure  accom- 
plished it.  His  usefulness  lay  not  exclusively  among 
the  poor ;  many  persons  of  education,  intelligence, 
and  station  were  brought,  through  him,  under  the  in- 
fluence of  evangelical  religion.  How  seldom  has 
the  individual  been  found,  since  Whitefield  and  Wes- 
ley's time,  of  whom  it  could  be  said  that  there  was 
reason  to  believe  he  had  been  the  instrument  of  con- 
verting a  hundred  persons  who,  in  one  way  or  an- 
other, became  preachers  of  the  Gospel.  This  added 
to  the  multitude  of  other  persons  who  by  his  instru- 
mentality were  brought  to  the  Saviour  of  the  world, 
is  an  amount  of  usefulness  which  rarely  falls  to  the 


A   SUCCESSFUL    MINISTRY.  1 5/ 

lot  of  any  minister  of  Christ.  It  proves  that  he, 
above  most,  was  '*  wise  to  win  souls,"  and  that "  God 
was  with  him." 

We  now  take  up  the  inquir}-  after  the  means  by 
which  he  attained  to  so  great  a  measure  of  useful- 
ness. It  is  evident  that  was  in  a  great  degree  to  be 
attributed  to  his  intense  desire  after  it.  He  set  out 
in  life  with  the  adoption  of  that  mighty,  impulsive, 
and  glorious  word  usefulness ;  and  usefulness  with 
him  meant  converting  sinners.  He  yearned  for  the 
salvation  of  souls.  It  was,  with  him,  not  merely  a 
principle  or  a  privilege,  but  a  passion.  For  this  he 
longed  and  prayed  in  the  closet,  wrote  in  the  study, 
labored  in  the  pulpit,  conversed  in  the  parlor,  and 
admonished,  counselled,  and  warned  wherever  he 
went.  It  was  his  conviction  that  his  talent  and  tem- 
perament were  more  especially  adapted  for  the  work 
of  conversion,  and  thence  his  sermons  contained  in- 
variably a  large  portion  of  the  truths  which  conduct 
to  it.  They  were,  to  a  considerable  extent,  made  up 
of  first  principles,  and  were  not  so  much  calculated 
for  leading  on  a  congregation  to  perfection. 

It  is,  I  think,  an  error  into  which  many  of  our 
modern  ministers,  whose  education  has  been  carried 
to  a  high  pitch,  have  fallen,  —  that  ever}-thing  is  to 
be  done  by  the  head  rather  than  by  the  heart.  We 
know  very  well  that  the  true  method  is  to  reach  the 
heart  through  the  head,  and  that  men  must  be  made 
to  feel  by  being  shown  why  they  should  feel,  and 
what  is  to  make  them  feel.     Bu:  in  ver}-  many  cases, 


158  THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

especially  in  the  least  educated,  the  head  is  to  be 
reached  by  appeals  to  the  heart.  We  often  hear  the 
remark,  "Yes,  it  was  a  clever  sermon,  but  it  wanted 
heart.  It  sparkled  like  the  stars,  or  shone  like  the 
moon  on  a  wintry  night,  but  it  warmed  no  one." 
Mr.  Knill  often  did  with  a  few  touches  of  genuine 
emotion  what  others  could  not  do  with  great  elab- 
oration. The  usefulness  of  Mr.  Knill,  however,  was 
not  exclusively  the  result  of  his  preaching.  The 
passion  for  the  conversion  of  souls,  which  he  mani- 
fested in  the  pulpit,  and  which  led  him  to  seek  it 
with  such  earnestness  there,  he  brought  with  him 
out  of  the  sanctuary  and  carried  into  more  private 
spheres,  as  the  great  object  of  life  and  principle  of 
action.  Like  the  enthusiastic  botanist,  geologist,  or 
entomologist,  he  was  ever  in  pursuit  of  his  object, 
and  looking  out  for  fresh  means  of  gaining  it.  It 
was  his  felicity  to  have  seldom  need  to  say,  "  I  have 
lost  an  opportunity."  How  few,  how  very  few  of  us, 
have  attained  to  this  watchfulness  for  occasions  of 
usefulness.  Our  friend,  no  doubt,  had  a  peculiar 
tact  for  this  way  of  doing  good,  a  talent  which  exists 
in  various  degrees  in  different  persons,  but  which 
ought  to  be,  and  may  be,  cultivated  by  all. 

There  was  another  way  in  which  Mr.  Knill  ex- 
tended his  usefulness,  and  that  was  by  writing  and 
publishing  short,  striking,  religious  tracts,  generally 
founded  on  some  facts.  They  obtained,  he  tells  us, 
a  circulation  of  some  millions,  and  were  greatly  hon- 
ored for  the  conversion  of  souls. 


A    SUCCESSFUL    MINISTRY.  1 59 

And  why  are  any  of  God's  servants  feeble  in  ac- 
tion, but  because  they  are  weak  in  devotion  ?  What 
is  wanted  among  us  is  deeper-toned  piety,  a  more 
devotional  spirit. 

O  for  a  fresh  baptism  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  a  revived 
ministry  and  a  revived  Church ;  a  race  of  preachers 
and  of  people  whose  whole  character  and  conduct 
shall  bear  in  letters  which  every  one  that  sees  must 
read,  the  inscription  on  the  mitre  of  the  High  Priest, 
"  Holiness  to  the  Lord." 

It  will,  perhaps,  be  asked,  if  I  would  hold  up  Mr. 
Knill  as  a  standard  and  model  for  all.  In  some 
things  I  would.  In  his  singular  devotedness  and 
consecration  to  his  work  ;  in  his  deep  conviction  and 
clear  perception  that  the  salvation  of  souls  is  the 
great  end  of  the  ministerial  office ;  in  his  intense 
desire  and  constant  endeavor  in  all  ways  to  reach 
this  end  ;  in  the  prevailing  evangelism  and  earnest- 
ness of  his  sermons ;  in  his  eminent  piety  and  devout 
spirit;  in  his  loving  disposition  and  kindly  bearing; 
in  his  simplicity,  fidelity,  and  courage;  in  all  these 
things,  I  would  commend  his  example  as  what  we 
should  endeavor  to  copy.  To  my  younger  brethren, 
I  say,  "  happy  will  it  be  for  you,  and  happy  for  your 
flocks  if  the  reading  of  his  memoir  shall  help  you  to 
find  and  to  wear  the  mantle  of  Richard  Knill." 


XL 


HINDERANCES   TO   PROGRESS. 

MANY  a  sincere  believer  is  disquieted  because 
he  cannot  find  sensible  progress.  He  does 
not  know  what  hinders ;  wishes  he  did  know  ;  thinks 
he  would  grudge  no  endeavor  to  secure  such 
progress,  if  he  could  but  ascertain  what  endeavor 
is  needed.  He  thinks  there  may  be  something  un- 
friendly in  his  circumstances.  He  is  very  sure  that 
did  he  enjoy  the  freedom  of  access  to  Christ  ac- 
corded to  the  first  disciples,  he  certainly  would  rise 
above  his  present  low  and  unsatisfactory  condition. 

This  very  common  persuasion  is  a  misleading  per- 
suasion. It  is,  in  fact,  one  of  the  most  serious  hin- 
derances  to  spiritual  progress.  Of  course  while  he 
indulges  this  idea,  he  will,  with  this,  indulge  another ; 
namely,  that  until  God  grants  some  change  in  his 
circumstances,  his  endeavor  for  any  considerable  im- 
provement in  spiritual  life  will  come  to  nothing. 
This  idea  is  the  product,  not  of  the  new  life,  but  of 
the  old  ;  the  life  of  nature.  It  is  both  false  and 
mischievous.  It  must  be  seen  to  be  false,  that  it 
z6o 


HINDERANCES    TO    PROGRESS.  l6l 

may  be  shorn  of  its  mischievous  influence.  It  is 
written  of  the  new  Kfe,  "  We  walk  by  faith,  not  by 
sight."  And  the  language  of  faith  is,  "We  know 
that  all  things  work  together  for  good  to  them  that 
love  God ; "  and  this  is  by  no  fortuitous  concurrence 
of  events,  but  under  the  unchangeable  law  of  our 
Redeemer's  kingdom.  He  arranges  all  our  cir- 
cumstances so  as  to  secure  to  us  the  highest  advan- 
tages for  spiritual  progress.  It  is  no  bar  to  this 
progress  that  we  cannot  now  know  Christ  after  the 
flesh ;  that  we  cannot  come  into  His  physical  pres- 
ence ;  but,  on  the  contrary,  it  is  the  removal  of  such 
a  bar,  that  we  now  know  Him  in  no  such  way.  The 
disciple  who  longs  to  know  Jesus  more  intimately, 
must  flrst  of  all  tell  Jesus  his  longing,  and  that  not 
once  or  twice,  but  every  day,  and  every  hour  of  every 
day  which  he  can  command.  He  may  well  take  up 
the  question  of  Judas,  "  Lord,  how  is  it  that  thou 
wilt  manifest  thyself  unto  us,  and  not  unto  the 
world  ? "  And  he  must  give  heed  to  the  answer, 
"  If  a  man  love  me,  he  will  keep  my  words,  and  my 
Father  will  love  him,  and  we  will  come  unto  Him, 
and  make  our  abode  with  Him." 

You  will  ask,  perhaps,  but  what  especial  words  of 
Jesus  may  we  suppose  he  intends  .?  And  I  answer, 
especially  such  words  as  these:  "Whatsoever  ye 
shall  ask  in  my  name,  that  will  I  do.  I  will  not 
leave  you  comfortless.  The  Comforter,  which  is  the 
Holy  Ghost,  he  shall  teach  you  all  things ;  for  he 
dwelleth  with  you  and  shall  be  in  you.     According 


1 62  THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

to  your  faith  be  it  unto  you."  Unhappily  a  large 
part  of  the  avowed  disciples  of  Jesus  never  deeply 
penetrate  the  meaning  of  these  words  of  His.  The 
Comforter  is  not  to  them  a  real,  present,  personal 
friend.  They  respect  "  the  influence  of  the  Spirit ;  " 
they  do  not  intimately  know  the  Friend.  Not  enter- 
taining what  Jesus  says  of  this  Friend,  they  make 
His  saying  of  no  effect :  they  are  left  comfortless, 
because  they  do  not  intelligently  and  cordially  re- 
ceive and  entertain  the  Comforter.  Thus  they  bar 
the  spiritual  progress  they  desire,  and  impute  to 
unfriendly  circumstances  what  should  be  referred  to 
their  neglect  of  the  words  of  Jesus.  Jesus  is  as  real 
and  really  accessible  to-day  as  eighteen  hundred 
years  ago,  and  it  is  the  especial  offlce  of  the  Divine 
Comforter  to  realize  Him  to  us.  "  For,"  said  Jesus, 
"  He  shall  bring  all  things  to  your  remembrance, 
whatsoever  I  have  said  unto  you.  He  shall  take  of 
mine  and  show  it  unto  you.  All  things  that  the 
Father  hath  are  mine ;  therefore,  said  I,  that  he  shall 
take  of  mine  and  show  it  unto  you." 

Now  be  it  known,  dear  friends,  to  each  and  all  of 
you  who  are  desiring  a  closer  walk  with  God,  an 
actualizing  of  His  personal  presence  and  friendship 
able  to  satisfy  all  your  needs,  and  not  unlike  nor 
inferior  to  that  of  the  beloved  John's,  and  of  which 
he  says,  "Truly  our  friendship  is  with  the  Father, 
and  with  His  Son  Jesus  Christ,"  —  all  this  is  freely 
offered  you,  on  the  one  condition,  that  you  believe 
and  keep  His  words.     Read  John  xiv.  22,  23  ;  and 


HINDERANCES    TO    PROGRESS.  1 63 

when  you  have  read,  beUeve.  "  All  things  are  possi- 
ble to  him  that  believeth."  Believe  these  words  of 
Jesus.  Believe  also  verses  18  and  26  of  this  same 
chapter.  Really  believe  and  act  upon  the  faith  of 
what  He  says,  shaping  and  governing  your  whole 
life  upon  this  belief,  and  your  conscious  progress 
will  be  inevitable. 


XII. 


FAITH. 


WE  shall  never  have  done  studying  faith;  we 
shall  never  have  done  with  the  need  to  en- 
large our  apprehension  of  it.  I  am  afraid  it  will  be 
a  long  while  before  we  shall  have  brushed  away  the 
cobwebs  which  are  not  faith,  but  a  kind  of  solemn 
nonsense  with  which  we  more  or  less  becloud  it. 

What  faith  is,  we  ought  to  know,  for  our  Divine 
Teacher  has  stated  it  very  simply,  very  intelligibly, 
even  for  the  simplest  and  youngest.  It  is  just  laying 
hold  of  the  unseen ;  just  preferring  what  God  says 
to  what  man  says ;  preferring  God's  treasures  to 
man's  treasures ;  and  this  not  merely  occasionally, 
spasmodically,  but  habitually. 

The  generations  of  men  one  after  another  came 
on  to  this  stage  of  life  to  find  an  infallible  directory 
provided  for  them,  a  sure  guide  to  happiness;  pro- 
vided also  wdth  a  monitor  within,  who  confirms  the 
testimony  of  God,  that  there  is  nothing  beneath  the 
sun  to  satisfy  the  cravings  of  an  immortal  spirit.  In 
God's  directory  is  instruction  in  every  form ;  exhorta- 
164 


FAITH.  165 

tion,  precept,  command,  narrative.  The  decalogue 
declares  what  man  must  do,  and  must  not  do.  The 
history  of  the  generations  before  and  after  the  flood 
exhibits  the  results  of  obedience  and  disobedience. 
Solomon  has  left  his  experience  of  what  unbounded 
resources  could  do  for  a  man  who  set  his  heart  upon 
accumulating  all  the  delights  of  the  sons  of  men.  The 
result  was  vanity  and  vexation  of  spirit.  And  yet 
each  one  of  us,  to  a  greater  or  less  extent,  declines 
to  be  taught  of  God  or  man.  Somehow,  we  think 
the  visible  and  the  temporal  is  going  to  do  for  us 
what  it  has  never  done  for  others ;  what  we  are  ready 
enough  to-  warn  others  it  will  never  do  for  them. 
What  very  bond-slaves  we  are  to  unbelief !  But  our 
God  is  able,  and  willing  too,  to  rend  these  fetters. 
He  has  given  us  the  power  to  choose,  the  power  to 
will,  the  power  to  be  in  thorough  earnest.  Dear 
friends,  shall  we  not  begin  to  exercise  this  power.? 
Shall  we  not  begin  to  set  before  us  and  to  hold  be- 
fore us  such  assurances  as  this,  "  Blessed  are  they 
that  hunger  and  thirst  after  righteousness,  for  they 
shall  be  filled ; "  and  this,  "  Seek  first  the  kingdom 
of  God  and  His  righteousness,  and  all  these  things 
shall  be  added  unto  you ; "  and  this,  "  It  is  more 
blessed  to  give  than  to  receive ;  "  and  this,  "  Verily 
I  say  unto  you,  there  is  no  man  who  has  forsaken 
houses,  or  brethren,  or  sisters,  or  father,  or  mother, 
or  wife,  or  children,  or  lands  for  my  name's  sake,  but 
shall  receive  a  hundred-fold  more  in  this  world,  and 
in  the  world  to  come  life  everlasting  "  ?     Faith  says, 


l66  THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

morning  by  morning,  hour  by  hour,  "  I  am  on  proba- 
tion this  day,  this  hour,  to  see  if  I  will  believe  God 
or  man ;  God's  testimony,  or  only  the  testimony  of 
the  senses.  I  am  exaked  to  great  honor.  I  am 
made  a  spectacle  to  angels.  The  Son  of  Man  is 
looking  to  see  if  He  shall  find  faith  on  the  earth.  I 
am  resolved  he  shall  find  it  in  my  soul." 


XIII. 


HOW  TO   BEGIN    LIFE. 


THE  works  at  Rogersville  are  large,  the  owners 
are  substantial  men,  in  character,  as  well  as  in 
money,  and  a  better  ojDening  for  a  young  man,  it 
would  be  hard  to  find," 

"  But  have  they  good  society  ?  " 

Ay,  that's  the  question,  our  enterprising  young 
men  and  their  pretty  and  accomplished  wives  are 
ever  ready  with.  And  I  will  answer  you  after  the 
French  fashion,  "  That  depends."  It  depends  upon 
what  you  intend  to  make  of  society,  and  what  of 
yourself.  It  depends  upon  your  view  of  life,  and  what 
you  expect  and  intend  to  make  of  life.  Tell  me  the 
one,  and  I  will  tell  you  the  other.  If  you  intend  to 
make  a  puppet-show  of  life ;  if  all  the  men  and 
women  are  to  pull  the  wires,  and  entertain  you  with 
amusing  sights,  I  am  afraid  I  can't  promise  that  for 
Rogersville.  In  the  first  place  they  are  a  busy 
people,  and  have  their  own  subsistence  to  earn.  In 
the  second  place  they  are  a  shrewd  people,  and  apt 
to  penetrate  a  selfish  scheme.     In  the  third  place 

167 


1 68  THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

they  are  a  thrifty  people,  who  would  decline  an  over- 
ture when  there  was  nothing  to  be  gained  by  it. 

If  your  plan  of  life  is  to  monopolize  the  honors, 
and  give  the  drudgery  to  others  ;  to  receive,  in  short, 
but  not  to  give ;  I  fear  you  will  be  disappointed  in 
our  society. 

On  the  other  hand,  if  you  agree  with  the  Son  of 
God,  that  it  is  more  blessed  to  give  than  to  receive, 
I  can  confidently  promise  you  good  society  —  very 
good  society ;  society  that  will  freely  receive  all  you 
have  to  give,  that  is,  if  you  manage  your  giving 
wisely.  You  shall  find  just  such  society  as  our  blessed 
Lord  found  in  Nazareth  and  Capernaum,  in  the  bor- 
ders of  Zebulon  and  Nephthalim,  by  the  seaside  be- 
3-ond  Jordan,  and  in  Galilee  of  the  Gentiles.  You 
will  find  them  a  mixed  people,  combined  of  various 
elements.  I  can't  predict  with  certainty,  how  many 
men  in  a  dozen  will  make  eminent  men,  extraor- 
dinary men,  memorable  men,  or  even  stirring  men. 
Our  Lord  found  a  Matthew,  Mark,  Luke,  John, 
James,  Peter,  and  some  others  —  nay,  he  found  the 
material,  out  of  which,  with  great  painstaking,  such 
men  were  to  be  made.  He  found  also  the  Marys, 
Martha,  and  others,  who  but  for  his  painstaking 
would  have  lived  in  ignorance  of  all  that  it  most  con- 
cerned them  to  know,  and  might  have  been  com- 
panions of  devils. 

I  think  you  can  have  no  doubt  that  though  "  a  man 
of  sorrow  and  acquainted  with  grief,"  our  Lord  was 
the  happiest^  as  well  as  the  best,  wdio  ever  walked  the 


HOW   TO    BEGIN    LIFE.  169 

earth  ;  for  he  not  only  declared  it  "  more  blessed  to 
give  than  to  receive  ;  "  over  which  you  might  pause, 
as  doubting  whether  it  might  not  be  a  truth  so  abstract 
as  to  be  more  fit  for  God's  use  than  man's  ;  but  Jesus 
also  declares,  "  I  delight  to  do  thy  will,  O  God." 
The  will  of  God  is  that  "  to  do  good  and  communi- 
cate, you  forget  not ;  "  that  "  as  you  have  freely  re- 
ceived you  shall  freely  give." 

Come  to  Rogersville  with  these  maxims  for  your 
mottoes,  and  I  dare  promise  you  such  society  as  the 
angels  keep  and  value.  You  shall  have  the  society 
of  those  who  will  have  just  reason  to  regard  you  as, 
next  to  God,  best  worthy  of  their  honor  and  their 
love. 


XIV. 


DEFERENCE    OR    LOVE? 


WHICH  will  you  have,  respectful  deference,  or 
trustful  love?  Consciously  or  unconsciously, 
you  are  daily  making  your  election ;  and  audibly,  or 
in  audibly,  you  are  being  answered,  almost  in  the 
words  of  the  itinerant  showman,  "  You  pay  your 
money,  you  take  your  choice."  For  though  neither 
deference  nor  love  should  be  bought  with  money, 
each  may  be  and  is  had  at  its  own  proper  cost ;  and 
many  a  man  is  like  a  spoiled  child  in  his  determina- 
tion to  have  at  any  rate  something  not  at  all  good 
for  him. 

Let  us  examine  the  price  of  these  several  com- 
modities. Be  not  displeased  that  they  are  so  char- 
acterized. Be  assured  that  they  are  not  therefore 
depreciated  or  disesteemed.  There  is  Divine  au- 
thority for  speaking  thus  of  what  stands  very  high  in 
God's  esteem,  "  I  counsel  thee  to  buy  of  me  gold 
tried  in  the  fire,  that  thou  mayest  be  rich,  and  white 
raiment  that  thou  mayest  be  clothed."  The  man 
who  sold  all  that  he  had,  and  bought  the  pearl  of 
170 


DEFERENCE    OR    LOVE?  I^I 

great  price,  was  never  blamed,  but  praised  for  the 
investment. 

Respectful  deference,  fairly  and  wisely  bought,  is 
a  good  thing  and  a  valuable  acquisition.  It  is  some- 
times gotten  by  false  pretences.  It  is  said  that  the 
world  will  commonly  take  a  man  at  his  own  estimate 
of  himself.  It  is  not  less  true  that  the  world  is  in 
this  way  often  overreached  ;  and  it  resents  the  cheat, 
when  it  discovers  that  it  is  a  cheat ;  though  it  may, 
from  policy,  withhold  its  resentment  from  the  object 
of  it;  as  men  will  sometimes  go  through  Ufe  yielding 
a  show  of  deference  to  one  who  takes  it  as  his  right, 
because,  they  say,  they  will  not  quarrel  with  a  man 
who  has  not  the  wit  to  know  either  how  much  he 
overestimates  himself,  or  how  little  any  one  is  de- 
ceived by  his  groundless  pretensions.  "  One  might 
as  well  quarrel  with  an  imbecile."  We  can  easily 
see, — 

I.  That  deference  bought  with  money ^  is  a  forced 
purchase,  extorted  from  poor,  grovelling  human  na- 
ture, which,  however  vexed  with  itself,  and  resolved 
not  to  be  cajoled  or  driven  into  the  concession  of 
what  it  knows  to  be  undeserved,  is  continually  be- 
trayed by  its  one  weakness.  "  I  will  not  yield  re- 
spect to  mere  money-bags,"  says  many  a  man.  Nor 
would  he,  had  he  that  nobility  of  soul  which  makes 
a  man  independent  of  his  fellow-men.  But  the  very 
atmosphere  betrays  him.  The  drift  of  the  wind  and 
tide  of  common  life,  lawless  and  worthless  as  it  may 
be,  by  the  mere  force  of  continuousness,  will  in  the 


1/2  THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

end  wear  away  the  hardest  resolves  of  just  judgment. 
All  men  are  subject  to  the  common  wants  of  human- 
ity ;  money  is  the  currency  given  in  exchange  for 
what  they  want ;  and  every  man,  however  much  or 
little  entitled  to  respect,  has  in  some  sort  a  lien  upon 
this  common  currency,  and,  to  that  extent,  must  be 
propitiated.  He  who  has  what  will  supply  our  com- 
mon wants  becomes  an  object  of  envy.  He  imper- 
sonates the  power  to  relieve  those  v/ants,  and  so  is 
looked  up  to.  Though  neither  God  nor  godlike  he 
gathers  no  small  measure  of  the  tribute  due  to  the 
i^eity  he  seems  to  represent. 

2.  We  can  readily  see  that  even  the  deference 
bought  with  talent  is  often  a  forced  purchase.  "  Such 
a  man,"  says  one,  "  I  do  not  respect.  I  have  no  con- 
lidence  in  his  principles  nor  in  his  life ;  but  he  has 
great  influence  in  the  community ;  he  may  have  the 
power  to  injure  me,  and  will  be  very  likely  to  use 
that  power  if  he  thinks  me  lacking  in  the  deference 
he  claims."  A  vast  deal  of  seeming  deference  is,  in 
truth,  but  a  sop  thrown  to  the  Cerberus,  who  may 
bite  us  if  he  be  not  appeased. 

3.  The  deference  accorded  to  social  position,  is 
often  little  better  than  a  bribe.  If  I  propitiate  this 
man  with  a  seeming  deference  which  costs  me  little, 
and  which  he  plainly  craves,  he  may  some  day  lend 
the  lifting  hand  which  my  ambitious  aspirations  seek. 

4.  Reserve  often  extorts-  a  measure  of  deference 
from  those  who  have  no  tribute  of  respect  to  render 
to  transparent  openness.     It  is  not  to  be  questioned 


DEFERENCE    OR    LOVE?  1/3 

that  circumstances  do  often  necessitate  a  wise  re- 
serve. But  in  this  necessity  there  is  found  no  evi- 
dence that  reserve  is  in  itself  a  good  and  beneficent 
thing.  On  the  contrary,  reserve  may  often  be  re- 
solved into  apathy,  indolence,  and  selfishness,  ex- 
tending sometimes  to  the  utter  denial  of  the  great 
command,  "Thou  shalt  Jove  thy  neighbor  as  thy- 
self." Many  a  man  is  reserved  because  frankness 
would  cost  him  the  good-will  of  the  wrong-doer,  or 
the  labor  of  justifying  a  right  position.  He  would 
sacrifice  the  most  momentous  principle  to  his  own 
indolent  ease. 

5.  Deference  is  often  bought  by  ill-temper.  The 
passionate  and  revengeful  man  is  dreaded.  He  ex- 
torts many  a  concession  which  would  never  be  made 
to  one  who  is  known  always  to  respect  the  rights  of 
others.  Men  make  a  show  of  deference  to  the  man 
with  whom  they  think  they  cannbt  afford  to  quarrel. 

6.  Conceit^  complacency  in  one's  self,  nourished, 
as  it  often  is,  by  fostering  circumstances,  and  beget- 
ting, as  it  ever  does,  a  sensitiveness  threatening  con- 
tinual collisions,  buys  a  show  of  deference,  which  the 
self-complacent  man  easily  mistakes  for  something 
true,  and  good,  and  due  to  himself. 

To  the  several  classes  here  indicated  as  obtaining 
—  it  may  be  unconsciously  —  deference  by  false 
pretences,  dignity  is  sometimes  ascribed.  But  dig- 
nity is  real  worth,  and  real  worth  must  needs  include 
a  just  knowledge  of  ourselves  and  of  others,  and  of 
what  is  due  to  each.     It  is  not  impossible  to  find  the 


174  THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

man  whose  self-resjDect  amounts  to  an  estimate  of 
himself  so  enormous  as  to  exckide  the  supposition 
that  another  might  differ  from  him  in  judgment  or 
opinion,  and  yet  be  both  courteous  and  right.  The 
self-respect  of  such  an  one  rests  on  his  incapability 
of  recognizing  goodness  and  truth  in  another. 

"  But,"  you  are  saying,  "  I  don't  much  like  your 
way  of  putting  this.  It  is  as  though  there  were  no 
real  deference ;  and,  almost  as  though  there  were 
nothing  in  life  to  deserve  such  deference.'' 

Not  so,  my  friend.  My  first  intent  was  to  secure 
attention  to  the  fact  that  the  common  average  of 
deference  is  entirely  overestimated,  and  is  a  dear 
purchase  at  any  price.  There  is  a  genuine  deference. 
It  is  not  an  object  for  direct  pursuit.  It  comes  to 
the  worthy  incidentally ;  follows  him  inevitably,  as 
his  shadow  follows  him  when  he  faces  the  Sun  of 
Righteousness,  and  devotes  his  day  to  his  Father's 
business.  My  second  intent  was  to  persuade  to  the 
choice  of  love.  To  this  choice  we  are  bound  by 
many  and  the  weightiest  considerations. 

I.  We  7nust  win  the  trustful  love  of  our  fellows,  or 
fail  in  obedience  to  our  Divine  commission  to  preach 
the  Gospel  to  every  creature  ;  to  disciple  all  nations. 
This  Gospel  is  a  Gospel  of  love  throughout.  Love 
brought  it.  Love  must  receive  it.  Love  must  diffuse 
it;  and  that  lovingly.  It  was  and  is  a  Gospel  of 
sacrifice,  even  to  the  extent  of  life  for  a  life.  It  is 
idle  to  suppose  that  we  can,  without  sacrifice,  give  to 
others  what  Jesus  gave  us  only  at  the  cost  of  His 


DEFERENCE    OR    LOVE  ?  1^5 

own  blood.  Therefore,  if  we  would  win  the  trustful 
love  of  our  fellows,  we  must  willingly,  ay,  cheerfully, 
sacrifice  our  pride,  love  of  ease,  self-indulgence  in 
any  form,  pleasure,  profit,  everything,  in  short,  that 
comes  between  us  and  them.  They  must  have  con- 
vincing evidence  of  the  genuineness  of  our  love  for 
them,  before  they  can  give  trustful  love  to  us.  It 
is  in  the  continuous  exercise  of  self-sacrificing  love 
that  we  abide  in  Christ.  "  As  the  branch  cannot 
bear  fruit  of  itself  except  it  abide  in  the  vine,"  says 
Jesus,  "  no  more  can  ye  except  ye  abide  in  me.  He 
that  abideth  in  me  and  I  in  him,  the  same  bringeth 
forth  much  fruit." 

2.  Nothing  so  tests  the  actuality  and  the  purity  of 
our  love  to  Jesus  as  the  persistent  pursuit  of  trustful 
love.  Knowing,  as  we  do,  that  one's  power  over 
others  for  their  good  is,  and  must  be,  measured  by 
the  trustful  love  we  enable  them  to  give  us,  is  it  not 
plain  that,  man-ward,  our  highest  obligation  is  to  de- 
serve and  to  win  that  love  ? 

3.  We  must  possess  the  trustful  love  of  Jesus. 
"When  they  saw  His  miracles,"  eighteen  hundred 
years  ago,  "  many  believed  in  His  name.  But  Jesus 
did  not  commit  Himself  unto  them,  because  He 
knew  all  men."  Is  it  not  plain  that  those  only  can 
be  filled  with  all  the  fulness  of  God  whom  Jesus 
can  completely  trust  ?  "  For  this  is  eternal  life  :  to 
know  thee,  the  only  true  God,  and  Jesus  Christ 
whom  thou  hast  sent."  Therefore,  dear  Lord,  "  O 
show  thyself  to  me,  or  take  me  up  to  thee." 


XV, 


WHAT   CAN    I    DO? 


THAT  depends  upon  how  much  in  earnest  you 
are.  It  depends  also  upon  the  source  of  your 
earnestness.  Do  you  love  Jesus  }  Is  your  love  so 
strong  that  you  must  fill  your  heart  and  hands  with 
work  for  Him  ?  If  you  could  be  sure  that  Jesus  had 
provided  work  for  you,  however  humble,  ay,  even 
contemptible  in  the  eyes  of  men,  would  you  accept  it 
thankfully  and^pursue  it  faithfully  ?  If  so,  then  there 
is  work  for  you,  and  very  precious  work. 

//  is  Tract  Work.  I  do  not  think  every  one  is  called 
to  tract  work.  God  giveth  to  every  man  severally  as 
He  will.  Peter  Drummond  was  a  florist  and  nursery- 
man, near  Stirling,  Scotland.  People  came  to  his 
place  on  Sunday.  He  would  not  serve  them  on  the 
Lord's  day.  He  prepared  a  tract  on  the  observance 
of  the  Sabbath,  to  admonish  the  Sabbath-breakers. 
Seeing  the  adaptation  of  this  to  correct  one  evil,  he 
was  drawn  on  to  deal  with  others  ;  and  so  one  Chris- 
tian endeavor  made  way  for  another,  until  his  cata- 
logue embraces  seven  hundred  and  sixteen  tracts. 
176 


WHAT    CAN    I    DO  ?  1/7 

Mr.  Drummond  has  no  doubt  taken  in  the  Divine 
assurance,  Is.  Iv.  ii,  "  My  word  shall  not  return  unto 
me  void."  He  believes  that  the  tract,  which  is  but 
a  timely  and  wise  commendation  of  some  word  of 
God,  will  surely  "  accomplish  that  which  God  pleases, 
and  prosper  in  the  thing  whereto  God  sends  it." 

Now  you  may  or  may  not  be  able  to  write  a  good 
tract ;  but  you  can  do  much  in  the  way  of  distribut- 
ing it.  And  you  should  do  what  you  caft.  If  you  are 
in  earnest  to  "  Seek  first  the  Ki7igdom  of  God^^^  you 
will  be  glad  to  learn  that  tract  distribution  is  closely 
related  to  the  furtherance  and  establishment  of  this 
kingdom.  When  our  Lord  said  to  the  whole  body 
of  the  first  disciples,  as  he  did,  "  Go  ye  into  all  the 
world,  and  preach  the  Gospel  to  every  creature,"  do 
you  suppose  he  thought  only  of  pulpit  preaching  ? 
By  no  means  !  It  could  never  be  given  to  every  crea- 
ture in  that  way.  His  truth  was  to  be  scattered  in 
every  possible  way.  Tract  distribution  is  one  of  the 
ways  possible  and  available  to  many  disciples.  Per- 
haps you  have  made  occasional  use  of  tracts  ;  rarely, 
perhaps,  and  with  diffidence.  Now  to  accomplish 
any  considerable  good  your  use  of  tracts  must  be  fre- 
quent, constant,  courageous  and  prayerful. 

You  must  attain  a  deep  and  unalterable  conviction 
that  God's  truth,  contained  in  every  good  tract,  is  a 
mighty  power ;  when  steeped  in  prayer  an  irresistible 
power  to  save  and  to  sanctify  souls.  When  you*have 
obtained  this  conviction,  it  remains  only  to  settle  the 
question  to  which  division  of  this  labor  am  I  called  ? 


lyS  THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

If  you  cannot  yourself  write  a  tract  expressing  per- 
suasively what  it  most  concerns  men  to  learn,  find 
some  such  tract,  already  written,  as  most  forcibly  ex- 
presses the  lesson  you  long  to  teach,  and  devote 
yourself  to  the  distribution  of  that  tract.  A  friend  of 
mine  who  loves  this  work  has  adopted  S.  M.  Hough- 
ton's tract,  ''  A  Saviour  for  You."  He  has  scattered 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  them.  Some  years  ago  he 
told  me :  "  Within  three  years  twenty-five  persons 
have  said  to  me,  '  I  was  led  to  Christ  by  "  A  Saviour 
for  You,"  which  you  gave  me. ' "  Think  of  that ! 
Twenty-five  persons  !  Have  you  no  desire  to  win  as 
many  or  more  to  Jesus  ? 

In  every  church  of  Christ  all  over  our  land  there 
are  doubtless  young  or  older  disciples  wishing,  "  O, 
that  I  could  be  useful  in  some  way  ! " 

Well,  dear  friends,  here  is  one  way  :  Let  two  or 
three  or  more  of  you  agree  together  upon  some  sys- 
tematic endeavor.  Make  a  list  of  every  member  of 
your  church  and  congregation.  Present  to  each  of 
them  your  plan  to  gather  mo?ithly  any  sum,  large  or 
small,  which  each  may  be  willing  to  give  monthly  for 
the  distribution  of  tracts.  Lend  or  give,  as  you  may 
be  able,  to  each  of  your  donors,  a  half  a  dozen  or 
rnore  tracts  to  choose  from.  Ask  them,  "  Which  tract 
will  you  have  your  donation  circulate  ?  "  Begin  that 
circulation  in  your  own  society  and  town.  Get  from 
the  Secretary  of  the  Home  Missionary  Society  a  list 
of  missionaries  and  of  destitute  parishes  to  whom 
your  monthly  overplus  will  be  acceptable.   Write  and 


WHAT    CAN    I    DO  ?  1/9 

send  through  the  post-office  little  parcels  ;  opening 
communication  with  these  servants  of  the  Lord  in 
various  places.  Send  your  donations  to  the  Secre- 
tary of  this  Society,  and  he  will  forward  to  you  many 
choice  tracts  which  God  has  blessed  to  the  saving 
and  sanctifying  of  souls. 


XVI. 


QUESTIONINGS. 


IT  seems  strange  that  when  I  am  trying  the  very 
best  I  know  to  do  what  God  would  have  me,  I  am 
every  now  and  then  entirely  prevented  ;  sometimes 
by  the  very  friends  of  God ;  and  my  very  best  endea- 
vors, my  most  prayerful  endeavors,  are  utterly  frus- 
trated !  Now,  how  can  you  reconcile  that  with  the 
declaration,  '  We  know  that  all  things  work  together 
for  good  to  them  that  love  God '  ?  It  seems  to  me 
we  don't  know  any  such  thing." 

"  Your  experience,  my  dear  brother,  has  been  a 
frequent  experience  with  me.  Once  it  perplexed 
me.  It  does  not  now.  It  would  not  perplex  you, 
but  for  an  assumption  which  you  should  not  make ; 
namel}^,  that  nothing  is  gained  when  your  own  will 
is  not  gained." 

"  My  will !     It  is  not  my  will  that  I  am  seeking, 

but  the  advancement  of  the   cause   of  our  blessed 

Lord.     For  example,  here,  a  while  since,  I  was  doing 

my  utmost  to  secure  for  our  congregation  the  best 

180 


QUESTIONINGS.  l8l 

minister  in  the  land.  I  was  not  working  for  myself, 
but  for  Christ  and  the  church.  A  few  persons,  whose 
judgment  I  cannot  think  better  than  my  own,  put 
their  foot  down  that  they  would  not  have  the  best 
man.  Now,  how  can  that  be  anything  else  but  an 
irreparable  loss  ?  And  what's  the  use  of  asking  me 
to  believe  that  the  wrong  man  is  just  as  good,  and 
even  better,  than  the  right  man  ? " 

"  I  have  n't  said  or  implied  that  the  wrong  man 
is  just  as  good  as  the  right  man.  But  this  I  will  ven- 
ture to  assert :  that  our  Lord  desires  one  other  thing 
more  than  He  desires  the  always  succeeding  of  right- 
minded  and  wise  endeavors ;  namely,  the  highest 
and  best  development  of  His  dear  children  who  make 
them.  And  this  best  development  is  many  times 
secured  by  the  frustration  of  good  and  wise  endea- 
vors. It  requires  no  great  grace  to  resign  without  a 
murmur  a  scheme  that  can  be  shown  to  be  unwise  and 
undesirable.  But  to  yield  the  choicest  and  the  best 
of  our  devising  with  loving  and  patient  resignation, 
when  the  self-v/ill  of  a  perverse  or  ignorant  man 
interposes  to  resist  us,  and  to  force  upon  us  an  alter- 
native which  better  knowledge  can  view  only  with 
complete  disapproval,  —  this  is  to  achieve  what 
greatly  endears  us^to  Him  who  has  set  His  heart 
upon  us  to  present  us  in  Zion  perfect  before  God. 
'  Behold  we  count  them  happy  which  endure  ; '  and 
so  our  Lord  accounts.  You  say,  my  dear  brother, 
it  was  not  your  will  you  were  seeking ;  but  who  of 
us,  however  he  may  start  with  the  sole  desire  to  honor 


I«2  THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

His  Lord,  can  be  sure  that  he  is  never  inveigled 
into  a  self-willed  pursuit  of  that  which  he  meant  for 
his  Master's  honor  ?  We  are  bound  Fo  serve  not  only 
for  noble  ends,  but  also  wdth  noble  means.  And 
assuredly  few  occasions  demand  of  us  a  nobler  or  a 
costlier  service  than  that  which  is  demanded  when, 
fearing  to  surrender  that  which  we  are  persuaded 
would  most  honor  our  blessed  Lord,  His  own  in- 
structions inspire  a  yet  more  controlling  fear,  lest  in 
the  midst  of  our  ardent  zeal  for  Him  we  should  let 
slip  the  ornament  of  a  meek  and  quiet  spirit  and  that 
lowliness  of  mind  ever  ready  to  esteem  others  better 
than  ourselves,  which  is  in  His  sight  of  great  price." 

''  Do  you  believe  that  sincere  prayer  always  obtains 
just  what  is  asked  ?  " 

"Let  me  ask  you  in  turn,  Do  you  believe  that 
every  sincere  Christian  is  infallible  ?  May  not  the 
child  of  our  Heavenly  Father,  in  common  with  all 
children,  sometimes  ask  what  His  Father's  wisdom 
and  love  would  forbid  to  be  granted  ?  " 

"Why,  of  course,  we  are  none  of  us  infallible; 
but  then  we  have  the  promise  of  the  Holy  Ghost  to 
guide  us  into  all  truth,  and  I  suppose  that  must  in- 
clude guidance  in  prayer." 

"  Undoubtedly ;  and  there  can  be  no  room  for 
doubt  that  w^hen  we  pray  in  the  Holy  Ghost,  as  Jude 
expresses  it ;  w'hen  we  are  filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost, 
as  Paul  was ;  separated  to  our  work  by  the  Holy 
Ghost,  as  Paul  and  Barnabas  were ;  our  prayers  will 
obtain  God's  best  gifts  for  men  ;  though  from  the 


QUESTIONINGS.  I  S3 

experience  of  Paul  and  Barnabas  at  Antioch  it  is  a 
reasonable  inference  that  the  largest  gift  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  does  not  supersede  that  exercise  of  personal 
judgment  upon  which  our  accountability  to  God  must 
needs  rest." 


XVII. 

THE    HIGHEST   CHRISTIAN    LIFE. 

MEN  are  divided  about  "  The  Higher  Christian 
Life ; "  they  ought  not  to  be  divided  as  to  the 
highest  Christian  life ;  concerning  this  they  surely 
should  be  of  one  heart  and  one  mind.  It  seems  to 
me  that  our  generation  is  waiting  for  some  single- 
hearted,  holy  man  to  give  Christ's  mind  upon  this 
matter,  in  simple  phrase  that  all  can  understand. 
Much  is  said  about  holiness ;  much  about  entire  con- 
secration ;  much  about  entire  sanctification.  Very 
much  is  said  loosely;  so  loosely  that  many  who 
would,  cannot  profit  by  it.  Until  we  come  to  a  clear 
understanding  and  accord  upon  the  significance  of 
the  term  employed,  there  cannot  but  be  endless  dis- 
agreement, perhaps  contentions,  and  loss,  sometimes, 
of  good-will.  I  think  we  may  easily  agree  upon 
some  inseparable  preliminaries.  Thus,  e.  g.,  in  our 
Lord's  own  words :  First,  "  No  man  can  serve  two 
masters ;  "  and  therefore.  Second,  "  His  servants  ye 
are  whom  ye  obey."  Third,  there  can  be  neither 
consecration,  sanctification,  nor  holiness,  for  one  who 
184 


THE    HIGHEST    CHRISTIAN    LIFE.  1 85 

does  not  seek  first  the  kingdom  of  God  and  His 
righteousness.  Fourth,  the  kingdom  of  God  is  in 
human  hearts,  and  it  is  in  that  heart  only  in  which 
mind  and  heart  delight  in  knowing,  honoring  and 
serving  God  to  the  extent  of  its  knowledge  and  ca- 
pacity. Fifth,  the  kingdom  of  God  is  an  increasing 
kingdom  ;  for,  of  the  increase  of  His  government 
there  shall  be  no  end.  And  this  is  eternal  life,  to 
know  God  and  Jesus  Christ.  Sixth,  Where  the  king- 
dom exists,  it  must  suitably  reveal  itself,  —  that  is  to 
say,  the  revelation  will  be  in  suitable  deference, 
reverence,  and  fealty  to  God. 

Now  let  us  consider  such  instances  of  real  single- 
hearted  service  as  we  know  of.  St.  Paul,  we  shall 
agree,  was  single-hearted  in  his  service ;  "  God  for- 
bid that  I  should  glory,  save  in  the  cross  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  by  whom  I  am  crucified  unto  the  world, 
and  the  world  unto  me."  "  I  am  determined  to 
know  nothing  but  Christ,  and  Him  crucified."  Dan- 
iel was  single-hearted.  So  was  Samuel,  Isaiah,  and 
Enoch.  We  have  all  of  us  surely  found,  here  and 
there,  one  in  our  own  day.  Now  the  persons  who 
are  thus  single-hearted  are  made  so  by  their  clear 
vision  of,  and  their  close  communion  with  Jesus. 
They  are  moved,  by  their  knowledge  of  Jesus,  to 
love  and  to  serve  Him  ;  and  where  knowledge  exists, 
that  knowledge,  like  light,  is  diffusive ;  a  city  set  on 
a  hill  cannot  be  hid ;  a  candle  set  upon  a  candle- 
stick gives  light  to  all  in  the  house.  So  he  who  has 
learned  its  loveliness,  will  speak  of  it,  and  speak  of 


1 86  THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

it  appreciatively.  He  who  has  learned  Christ's  com- 
passion, His  meekness,  purity,  peace-making;  His 
majesty,  truth,  wisdom,  power,  holiness,  —  will  speak 
of  each  as  the  Spirit  gives  him  utterance.  Doubtless 
there  are  sincere  Christians,  honest,  loyal,  faithful 
Christians,  whose  knowledge  of  the  Lord  is  extremely 
narrow  and  limited.  They  may  love  warmly  all  they 
know  of  Christ,  and  all  they  have  found  in  Him,  and 
are  not  to  be  blamed  if  they  speak  only  what  they 
have  learned;  but  it  surely  is  the  duty  of  all  who 
have  learned  more  of  Jesus  to  show  that  more  to 
those  who  have  less.  It  is  scarcely  confessing  Christ 
to  confess  only  one's  love  to  him.  It  is  necessary 
to  confess  His  loveliness,  and  he  only  can  confess 
Christ's  loveliness  who  knows  that  loveliness.  Let 
each  disciple  confess  what  he  knows  of  it  —  all  he 
knows  of  it;  always  w'ith  the  understanding  that  he 
is  eagerly  pursuing,  and  will  surely  know  more  of  it 
next  week,  next  month,  than  he  knows  to-day ;  for 
Jesus  himself  says,  "  Then  shall  ye  know  if  ^^  follow 
071  to  know  the  LordT  The  pastor  who  permits  any 
one  of  his  flock  to  go  round  and  round,  like  a  horse 
in  a  mill,  with  the  same  stereotype  confession  and 
profession,  should  consider  that  he  is  permitting  that 
member  to  rest  in  what  v/ill  no  more  keep  good, 
without  expansion  and  enlargement,  than  the  manna, 
which  was  to  serve  but  for  one  day,  could  be  made 
to  suffice  for  seven.  "Give  us  day  by  day  our  daily 
bread." 


XVIII. 


POWER   OF   THE    LIFE   IN    CHRIST. 


THE  anxious  solicitude  of  many  an  earnest  child 
of  God  is  met,  ay,  fully  met,  by  our  Lord's 
answer  to  one  of  the  sisters  of  Bethany :  "  Martha, 
Martha,  thou  art  careful  and  troubled  about  viany 
things ;  but  o?te  thing  is  needful'^  And  that  one 
thing  is  instantaneous,  loving  oneness  with  Christ ;  a 
love,  a  trust,  and  a  rest  in  Christ,  that  lifts  the  be- 
liever out  of  all  solicitudes  into  the  very  bosom  of 
his  Lord.  Insensibility  to  the  honor  and  cause  of 
Christ  among  professed  disciples  is,  alas !  mourn- 
fully extensive  and  deplorable.  But  it  seems  to 
escape  the  recognition  of  many  earnest  Christians 
that  there  is  another  t3'pe  of  unfaithfulness  far  more 
deplorable,  because  found  in  those  from  whom  our 
Lord  has  reason  to  expect  better  things ;  in  those, 
namely,  who  never  cease  to  witness  that  Christ  is 
all. 

Anxious  believers  lay  hold  of  their  favorite  and 
only  type  of  the  Redeemer's  progress ;  it  may  be  the 
unconcealed  and  agonizing  convictions  of  unrenewed 

187 


1 88  THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

men,  or  the  outspoken  ecstasies  of  believers,  and 
bemoan  themselves  and  the  Church  that  the  repro- 
duction of  that  type  is  seldom  seen.  They  hold  it 
up  in  perpetual  token  that  the  Holy  Spirit  has  for- 
saken the  Church,  or  their  own  branch  of  it.  All 
the  growing  graces  of  believers  and  manifold  mani- 
festations of  Christ's  love  go  for  nothing,  in  arresting 
their  judgment,  so  long  as  they  fail  to  see  what 
they  regard  as  the  indispensable  presage  of  His 
renewed  and  increased  care  for  His  flock.  But, 
beloved,  anxious  brother,  have  you  fairly  estimated 
the  power  of  growth  in  grace  and  in  the  love  of 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  in  any  one  Christian  heart  ? 
Methinks  I  hear  you  say,  "  Oh,  of  course,  growing  in 
love  is  all  right,  and  an  excellent  thing  in  itself ;  but 
the  cause  of  Christ  will  never  advance  until  the 
Church  is  awakened  from  its  insensibility  to  the 
worth  of  dying  souls  around  us  ! "  But  what  is  to 
arouse  the  Church  of  Christ  ?  Is  it  stunning  the  ears 
of  the  sleepers  with  harrowing  representations  of  the 
depth  of  the  abyss,  its  much  fire,  and  the  worm  that 
dieth  not  ?  You  and  I  have  seen  many  a  brief 
awakening  and  relapse ;  a  speedy  return  to  insen- 
sibility and  neglect,  constraining  us  to  affirm  that  the 
great  majority  of  professed  disciples  of  Christ  do  not 
believe  in  the  certainty  and  fearfulness  of  future 
punishment.  And  no  wonder  that  we  so  affirm. 
And  therefore  would  I  show  a  more  excellent  way. 

There  is  a  more  excellent  way.     My  assurance  of 
it  grows  broader  and  firmer  day  by  day.     It  is  the 


POWER    OF    THE    LIFE    IN    CHRIST.  189 

way  of  closer  communion  and  fellowship  with  Christ 
on  the  part  of  a  few  who  really  have  become  one 
with  Him  in  everlasting  love.  Steady,  continuous, 
faithful,  persistent  workers  in  Christ's  service  do  not 
and  never  will  find  their  impulse  in  harrowing  pic- 
tures of  the  woes  and  tortures  of  the  damned.  It  is 
not  in  human  nature,  not  even  in  renewed  humanity, 
to  find  its  spring  of  action  there.  The  only  spring 
that  can  endure  in  our  day  is  the  love  of  Christ. 
Thank  God,  that  spring  is  not  only  sufficient,  it  is 
incomparably  more  effective  than  any  and  all  other. 
What  has  raised  the  world  from  the  fearful  condition 
of  two  thousand  years  ago  ?  Just  the  love  of  God  in 
Christ.  And  what  is  to  carry  on  man's  elevation 
from  his  present  condition  to  that  of  perfect  con- 
formity to  the  will  of  God }  Just  the  love  of  God  in 
Christ  working  in  us  mightily  both  to  will,  and  to  do, 
and  to  be  all  that  He  desires ;  transforming  us  day 
by  day  and  hour  by  hour  into  the  image  of  God's 
dear  Son. 

Love  is  the  spring  that  never  loses  its  force ;  love 
is  the  fire  that  never  dies ;  the  light  that  never  be- 
comes dim ;  the  tongue  that  is  never  silent ;  the 
argument  that  never  loses  its  persuasive  power. 
Jesus  says,  "  He  that  abideth  in  me,  and  I  in  him, 
the  same  bringeth  forth  much  fruit."  Not  that  he 
shall  some  day ;  he  does  it  now.  No  need  to  goad 
with  harrowing  appeals  the  soul  that  abides  in 
Him.  It  has  the  fulness  and  vigor  of  loving  life 
in   Him.     The   power  of   love   is  infinitely  greater 


IQO  THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

than  the  power  of  fear.  The  love  of  Jesus  makes  it 
easy  for  the  disciple  who  is  one  with  Him  ;  for  the 
disciple  who  has  gained  the  power  of  long  continued 
habit  of  oneness  with  Him,  to  do  and  endure  any- 
thing his  Lord  would  have  him.  For  one  whose 
religious  life  must  be  sustained  by  laborious  pic- 
turings  of  the  lost,  to  summon  the  indissolubly  one 
in  Christ  to  more  active  service,  is  as  though  the 
groaning  water-wheel,  or  some  of  its  whirring  spin- 
dles should  call  upon  gravitation  itself  to  awake 
from  its  indolent  slumbers. 

There  is  a  love  that  comes  of  abiding  in  Christ 
and  Christ  in  us,  that  we  do  well  to  liken  to  the  law 
of  gravitation.  Both  come  from  Christ.  In  the  lat- 
ter is  His  infinite  power;  in  the  former  His  infinite 
love.  To  the  full  believer  Christ  gives  Himself; 
and  so,  when  we  thus  believe,  all  things  are  ours. 
His  joy  remains  in  us,  and  our  joy  is  full.  This  is 
Christ's  own  utterance  to  believers,  who  are  to  be 
his  witnesses  in  a  world  alienated  from  God  and 
condemned  already.  Are  you  prepared,  my  dear 
brother,  to  amend  the  last  utterances  of  Him  who 
knows  what  is  in  man,  and  what  man  needs  to 
reclaim  him  ? 


XIX. 


HOLINESS. 


IT  is  singular,  very,  how  all  at  once,  as  it  were,  and 
from  every  quarter,  there  is  so  much  talk  about 
holiness,  sanctification  and  the  higher  Christian 
life." 

Yes ;  it  is  singular  and  remarkable,  especially  by 
those  of  us  who  are  no  longer  young,  who  have  been 
looking  sorrowfully  upon  the  successive  developments 
of  worldliness  among  the  people  of  God,  and  to 
whom  it  is  natural  to  revert  to  the  days  of  more  quiet, 
of  greater  simplicity  of  living,  as  being  more  hopeful 
than  the  present. 

"But  there  is  such  a  deplorable  lack  of  humility  in 
all  this  talk ;  such  censoriousness  and  condemnation 
of  better  men  who  don't  believe  in  thrusting  their 
most  serious  thoughts  upon  others !  It  is  really 
mournful  to  think  how  Httle  such  people  know  them- 
selves." 

Yes  ;  it  is  mournful  to  think  how  little  any  of  us 
know  ourselves,  and  still  more  mournful  to  think 
how  little  we  know  our  Divine  Lord.     And  when  we 

191 


192  THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

remember  that  "  without  holiness  no  man  shall  see 
the  Lord,"  how  encouraging  it  is  to  find  such  a  gen- 
eral awakening  to  the  worth  and  beauty  of  holiness ! 

"  I  can't  see  it  so  at  all.  I  don't  find  the  evidence 
of  any  proper  appreciation  of  holiness.  There  is  a 
great  deal  of  talk  to  be  sure ;  you  can't  take  up  a 
paper  but  you  '11  find  an  article,  and  it  may  be  seve- 
ral, about  'The  Higher  Life.'  I'm  sick  of  it.  For 
my  part,  I  admire  the  passive  graces.  '  Still  waters 
run  deep.'  I'm  apt  to  think  there's  more  holiness 
and  a  higher  life  where  there's  less  talk." 

I  will  not  venture  to  controvert  your  statement. 
We  know  that  we  are  all  babes  in  Christ.  The  best 
of  us  are  very  immature.  Unconsciously  to  ourselves 
we  grow  up  in  narrow  views  of  truth  and  of  Christian 
obligation.  Even  when  we  obtain  light  enough  to 
make  us  aware  of  the  danger  of  narrowness,  it  is 
only  by  desperate  struggles  against  all  narrowing  in- 
fluences that  we  obtain  a  limited  success  in  overcom- 
ing them.  But  I  cannot  withhold  a  word  of  cheer 
from  any  man  who  is  waking  to  the  perception  of  a 
life  higher  than  suffices  the  great  majority  of  the 
church.  It  seems  to  me  that  I  should  be  irresistibly 
impelled  to  whisper,  "  Awake,  dear  brother,  awake 
to  righteousness ;  arise,  and  Christ  shall  give  thee 
light.  Jesus  is  looking  with  tender  solicitude  to  find 
faith  on  the  earth ;  to  find  grateful  acknowledgment 
for  His  mercies.  You  wall  cheer  His  heart  by  your 
growing  love  to  Him  ;  by  your  earnest  prayer  to  be 
filled  with  the  knowledge  of  His  will,  in  all  wisdom 


HOLINESS.  193 

and  spiritual  understanding.  I  am  sure  He  will  en- 
able you  to  walk  worthy  of  the  Lord  unto  all  pleas- 
ing; he  will  make  you  faithful  in  every  good  work  ; 
and  also  to  increase  in  the  knowledge  of  God." 

"  But  how  can  you  possibly  be  hopeful  of  people 
who  talk  so  freely,  and,  you  must  own,  very  often  in- 
accurately, about  the  most  sacred  themes  ?  And 
then,  how  they  obtrude  their  experiences !  How 
contrary  to  the  whole  spirit  of  the  Bible  ! " 

Are  you  sure  you  are  quite  right  in  this,  my 
brother?  Is  it  not  written,  "Ye  are  my  witnesses, 
saith  the  Lord;"  and  "if  there  be  first  a  willing 
mind  it  is  accepted  according  to  that  a  man  hath, 
and  not  according  to  that  he  hath  not ;  "  "  Whoso- 
ever, therefore,  shall  confess  me  before  men,  him 
will  I  confess  also  before  my  Father  which  is  in 
heaven  "  ? 

"  I  don't  complain  of  any  man's  confessing  Christ, 
or  exalting  Christ,  but  the  trouble  is,  that  it  is  more 
themselves  than  Christ,  they  confess  and  exalt." 

Does  not  our  Heavenly  Father  characterize  Christ 
as  His  "  unspeakable  gift  "^  "  Is  it  strange,  then,  that 
God's  witnesses  are  able  to  confess  Christ  chiefly, 
not  to  say  o?ily,  as  they  discover  and  disclose  what 
they  believe  Him  to  have  done  for  themselves  ?  And 
is  there  not  a  Scriptural  warrant  for  this  confession  ? 
How  runs  the  experience  of  every  friend  of  God  re- 
corded in  the  Bible  ?  "  I  will  love  thee,  O  Lord,  my 
strength.  The  Lord  is  my  rock,  and  my  fortress, 
and  my  deliverer ;  my  God,  my  strength,  in  whom  I 


194  THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

will  trust."  "  If  I  regard  iniquity  in  my  heart, 
the  Lord  will  not  hear  me ;  but  verily  God  hath 
heard  me ;  He  hath  attended  to  the  voice  of  my 
prayer."  "  I  love  the  Lord  because  He  hath  heard 
my  voice  and  my  supplications.  Yea,  our  God  is 
merciful.  I  was  brought  low  and  He  helped  me. 
Return  unto  thy  rest,  O  my  soul;  for  the  Lord  hath 
dealt  bountifully  with  thee."  Is  not  this  the  strain 
of  the  New  Testament  saints  as  well  ?  What  say 
John,  and  Peter,  and  James,  and  Paul  ?  "  Truly  our 
fellowship  is  with  the  Father  and  with  His  Son  Jesus 
Christ."  "  As  He  which  hath  called  you  is  holy,  so 
be  ye  holy  in  all  manner  of  conversation,"  "  Ye 
adulterers  and  adultresses,  know  ye  not  that  the 
friendship  of  the  world  is  enmity  with  God  }  Who- 
soever, therefore,  will  be  a  friend  of  the  world  is  the 
enemy  of  God."  "I  beseech  you,  therefore,  by  the 
mercies  of  God,  that  ye  present  your  bodies  a  living 
sacrifice,  hoi}',  acceptable  unto  God,  which  is  your 
reasonable  service."  "  I  am  persuaded  that  neither 
death,  nor  life,  nor  angels,  nor  principalities,  nor 
powers,  nor  things  present,  nor  things  to  come,  nor 
height,  nor  depth,  nor  any  other  creature  shall  be 
able  to  separate  us  from  the  love  of  God  which  is  in 
Christ  Jesus  our  Lord."  "We  are  conquerors  and 
more  than  conquerors  through  Him  who  hath  loved 
us."  "  Beloved,  if  our  heart  condemn  us  not  then 
have  we  confidence  toward  God."  "  I  live,  and  yet 
not  I,  but  Christ  liveth  in  me."  "We  who  have  be- 
lieved do  enter  into  rest."     "  Thanks  be  to  God,  who 


HOLINESS.  195 

hath  given  us  the  victory  through  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ." 

"Of  course  I  have  no  objection  to  make  to  such 
confessions  as  these.  But  do  not  these  claimants  of 
the  '  Higher  Christian  Life,'  to  state  it  in  the  very 
kindest  manner,  make  the  most  deplorable  mistakes, 
even  to  the  extent  of  supposing  themselves  delivered 
from  sin  ? " 

And  yet,  my  dear  friend,  which  is  even  more  re- 
markable, you  are  impatient  with  them,  because  they 
are  not  sinless.  But  let  us  look  a  little  more  closely 
at  this  matter.  These  pleaders  for  "the  Higher 
Christian  Life,"  these  men  and  women  who  think 
they  have  come  to  know  a  good  thing,  and  are  so 
solicitous  to  share  it  with  their  fellow-Christians, 
mention  in  particular  that  they  have  found  great  joy 
and  great  peace  in  believing;  and  out  of  that  joy  and 
peace,  great  strength  and  freedom  to  recommend 
Christ  and  His  service.  What  is  there  new,  strange, 
or  unreasonable  in  that  ?  I  found  out  that  more 
than  forty  years  ago. 

"  Well,  yes,  that  of  course ;  but  they  don't  stop 
there.  Don't  they  pretend  to  be  delivered  more  or 
less  perfectly  from  sin  ?  " 

I  dare  say  they  do.  I  hope  so.  I  should  be  ter- 
ribly alarmed,  and  with  reason,  if  I  found  that  the 
blood  of  Christ  had  no  power  to  cleanse,  or  was 
losing  its  power  to  cleanse  from  all  sin. 

"  Ah  !  but  you  know  that  is  n't  what  I  mean.  They 
don't  stop  there.  They  talk  as  though  they  had  ac- 
tually been  set  free  from  sin.'* 


196  THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

I  have  no  doubt  some  of  them  have  been  so  eman- 
cipated from  some  sins  ;  that  Jesus  loves  them  un- 
speakably ;  that  He  has  graven  them  on  the  palms  of 
His  hands  ;  that  He  keeps  them  as  the  apple  of 
His  eye.  Thus,  for  example,  they  are  no  longer 
lukewarm,  prayerless,  ungrateful  for  God's  mercies, 
or  heedless  of  souls  about  them.  Worldly  pleasures 
have  no  fascination  ;  they  endure  God's  discipline 
patiently  and  gratefully. 

"  But  do  you  mean  to  countenance  claims  to  sin- 
less holiness  ?  " 

I  have  never  yet  met  with  any  making  such  claim. 
If  some,  upon  whom  God  has  bestowed  uncommon 
amiability,  unselfishness,  and  an  equable  tempera- 
ment, among  His  natural  gifts,  should  mistake  the 
influence  of  these  precious  gifts  for  something  more 
spiritual,  it  would  not  greatly  surprise  me.  But  that 
any  child  of  God  capable  of  a  moderate  acquaintance 
with  himself  and  with  the  talents  entrusted  to  him ; 
capable  of  such  knowledge  of  the  holiness  of  God  as 
the  blessed  Comforter  dwelling  in  him  could  not  fail 
to  impart  to  him,  could  for  an  instant  imagine  him- 
self absolutely  sinless  in  the  eye  of  that  God,  is 
simply  inconceivable.  That  even  such  a  one  might 
misapply  the  beloved  John's  declaration  that  "the 
blood  of  Jesus  Christ,  His  Son,  cleanseth  from  all 
sin,"  is  not  inconceivable.  The  growing  solicitude 
to  take  full  advantage  of  the  Divine  assurance,  "  If 
we  confess  our  sins  He  is  faithful  and  just  to  forgive 
us  our  sins  and  to  cleanse  us  from  all  unrighteous- 


HOLINESS.  197 

ness,"  is  surely  one  of  the  precursors  of  that  coming 
blessing  that  God  has  promised :  "  Bring  3'e  all  the 
tithes  into  the  storehouse,  that  there  may  be  meat  in 
my  house,  and  prove  me  now  herewith,  saith  the 
Lord  of  Hosts,  if  I  will  not  open  you  the  windows 
of  Heaven  and  pour  you  out  a  blessing  that  there 
shall  not  be  room  enough  to  receive  it." 

A  great  deal  is  said  about  holifiess ;  well,  I  am  not 
surprised  at  that.  If  Christians  are  to  think  and 
talk  about  any  thing  I  should  expect  them  to  think 
and  talk  about  holiness.  But  they  talk  so  differently. 
One  man  declares  that  "the  doctrine  of  holiness, 
alone,  can  save  the  church."  But  when  I  ask  him, 
What  do  you  mean  by  holiness  ?  Do  you  mean  that 
anybody  is  perfect,  absolutely  sinless  ?  he  says,  "  No, 
I  don't  mean  that.  We  don't  pretend  that  any  body 
is  absolutely  perfect;  only  God  is  that." 

"  But  what  then  do  you  mean  ?  " 

"  Oh,  I  mean  that  men  must  be  entirely  sanctified." 

Well,  now  you  have  taken  a  new  phrase,  that 
puzzles  me  as  much  as  the  other.  I  turn  to  the  dic- 
tionary and  find  that  sanctified  means  "made  holy," 
and  so  the  reasonable  interpretation  of  "  entirely 
sanctified  "  would  seem  to  be  made  entirely  holy. 
But  you  say,  "  No,  that  is  not  it,  for  none  but  God  is 
entirely  holy." 

My  dear  friend,  if  we  are  to  get  out  of  endless 
confusion  we  must  come  to  definite  agreement  as  to 
the  meaning  of  the  words  we  emplo}'.     Nothing  can 


198  THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

be  more  desirable  for  the  followers  of  Christ  than  to 
find  words  which  they  can  agree  to  use  to  express 
our  common  faith.  It  is,  I  think,  one  of  Satan's  de- 
vices to  fasten  upon  sections  of  Christ's  church 
words  and  phrases  which  others  of  His  followers 
cannot  adopt.  In  this  way  he  contrives  to  keep  us 
from  showing  a  common  and  united  front  against  the 
enemy.  Now  why  should  we  continue  to  yield  him 
this  advantage  against  us,  when  there  is  no  need  of 
doing  so ;  when  we  may,  with  painstaking,  unite 
upon  the  use  of  words  which  do  express  our  common 
faith  ? 

I  think  the  difficulty  arose,  at  first,  from  the  per- 
version of  the  simplest  lessons  God  has  given  us. 
These  lessons  are  at  once  simple  and  comprehensive  ; 
very  high  and  yet  level  to  the  comprehension  of  a 
child.  Thus  God  says,  "  Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord 
thy  God  with  all  thy  heart,  and  with  all  thy  soul,  and 
with  all  thy  mind,  and  with  all  thy  strength."  It  has 
been  Satan's  part,  from  our  first  parent's  day  until 
now,  to  represent  that  God  does  not  mean  all  He 
says,  and  that  He  will  not  do  all  He  threatens.  He 
persuaded  Adam  of  this  to  his  ruin.  Be  it  ours  to 
make  sure  that  Satan  shall  not  persuade  us  that 
God  does  not  mean  what  He  says  in  His  first  great 
commandment. 

We  are  all  familiar  with  Satan's  comments  on  the 
Word  of  God.  "Of  course,"  he  says,  "you  are  to 
obey  the  commandments,  but  when  you  love  God 
you  are  to  love  Him  in  a  very  high  and  peculiar  and 


HOLINESS.  199 

mysterious  way,  not  as  you  love  your  parents  and 
children,  brothers,  sisters  and  friends;  not  at  all, 
that  is  different ;  that  is  mere  natural  love,  and  too 
commonplace  to  offer  to  the  great  God.  Such  love 
as  that  would  be  belittUng  and  unworthy."  And  so 
he  thrusts  upon  your  mind  a  vague  and  misty  notion 
of  some  unreal  kind  of  love  as  the  only  love  proper 
to  be  given  to  God,  while  the  real,  substantial,  intel- 
ligible love,  which  everybody  comprehends,  is  to  be 
kept  for  relatives  and  friends  about  us.  Nothing 
could  be  more  shrewdly  fitted  to  the  great  adversary's 
aim  to  make  God  unreal,  and  to  shut  Him  out  of  hu- 
man hearts.  God  says,  and  Jesus  echoes  it,  "  Thou 
shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart." 
That 's  the  great  first  doctrine  of  the  Bible ;  that  is 
God's  doctrine ;  His  lesson,  brother,  to  you  and  to 
me,  and  to  every  other  brother,  everywhere  —  a  les- 
son plain  to  every  understanding,  and  does  not  admit 
of  two  readings.  He  says  so  plainly  no  words  could 
make  it  more  plain,  /  must  have  whole-hearted  love. 
Every  man,  woman,  and  child  can  give  his  whole 
heart's  love  to  our  Immanuel,  to  God  in  Christ. 
Every  one  who  does  this  will  make  a  total  consecra- 
tion of  himself  to  Jesus.  He  will  set  himself  apart 
for  Jesus.  He  will  write  upon  himself  and  upon  all 
that  he  has,  "  Holiness  unto  the  Lord."  He  will  do 
this  because  he  has  received  the  Holy  Ghost,  the 
Comforter ;  for  the  Comforter,  when  thus  received, 
takes  the  things  of  God  and  of  Christ,  and  shows 
them  to  his  entertainer ;  and  among  these  things  is 


200  THE   CHRISTIAN   MINISTRY. 

the  disciple's  sonship.     Jesus  has  made  us  sons  and 
heirs. 

Once  receive  this  gift,  His  free  gift,  and  the 
child-nature  will  assert  itself.  As  a  loving  child  you 
will  not  fail  to  go  to  your  Lord  with  everything. 
You  will  be  a  witness  for  Jesus,  and  your  testimony 
will  harmonize  with  that  of  every  true  witness.  You 
cannot  claim  sinless  holiness,  but  you  can  and  will 
claim  whole-hearted  love ;  ay,  and  full  assurance  of 
faith  and  of  hope.  You  may  not  claim  full  perfec- 
tion, but  you  can  claim  present  and  full  salvation, 
both  from  the  law  and  from  the  dominion  of  sin. 
You  may  in  God's  own  words  declare,  "  There  is 
therefore  now  no  condemnation  to  them  which  are  in 
Christ  Jesus,  who  walk  not  after  the  flesh,  but  after 
the  Spirit.  For  the  law  of  the  spirit  of  life  in  Christ 
Jesus  hath  made  me  free  from  the  law  of  sin  and 
death."  Here  is  ground  on  which  we  can  all  stand  ; 
on  which  we  all  owe  it  to  our  Lord  to  stand,  while 
we  make  common  cause  against  all  who  go  about  as 
Satan's  emissaries,  representing  that  God  does  not 
mean  what  He  says  when  He  demands  that  we  love 
Him  with  all  the  hearty  soul,  mind,  and  strength.  He 
declares,  "  Ye  are  a  chosen  generation,  a  royal  priest- 
hood, a  holy  nation,  a  peculiar  people  ;  that  ye  should 
show  forth  the  praises  of  Him  who  hath  called  you 
out  of  darkness  into  His  marvellous  light."  The 
great  majority  of  those  who  connect  themselves  with 
the  Church  of  Christ  aspire  to  no  such  type  of  pecu- 
liar life.     They  have  no  sentiment  of  priesthood,  no 


HOLINESS.  201 

conscious  call  to  stand  between  the  living  and  the 
dead.  All  who  know  themselves  to  be  thus  called  of 
God,  are  bound  by  every  obligation  the  grace  of  God 
can  accumulate  upon  them,  to  be  living  witnesses  for 
Him,  that  His  whole  people  are  called  to  come  out 
from  the  mixed  multitude  of  formal  worshippers,  and 
assume  the  station  and  service  of  faithful,  devoted 
soldiers  of  the  Lamb. 

All  improvement  in  this  direction  must  begin  in 
an  improved  knowledge  of  Jesus.  "  This  is  eternal 
life,  to  know  the  only  true  God,  and  Jesus  Christ." 
This  knowledge  is  in  the  highest  degree  a  matter  of 
fact  knowledge,  and  he  who  would  acquire  it  must 
diligently  study  the  facts  of  our  Lord's  history. 
"  Search  the  Scriptures,"  He  says,  "  for  in  them  ye 
think  ye  have  eternal  life,  and  they  are  they  which 
testify  of  me."  It  is  the  loving  study  of  this  dear 
Lord,  in  His  teachings  and  in  His  life,  that  sanctifies 
us.  And  so  He  prays,  "  Sanctify  them  through  Thy 
truth ;  Thy  Word  is  truth." 


XX. 


SIGNS   OF   THE   TIMES. 

OUR  concern  is  with  the  people  who  are  within 
our  reach,  and  for  whom  we  have  a  personal 
accountability  to  our  Lord  ;  and  of  them  we  shall 
probably  be  justified  in  saying  that  faith  was  never 
at  a  lower  ebb  than  now.  Do  you  ask  for  the  evi- 
dence ?  You  have  only  to  open  your  eyes  ;  it  is  all 
around  you.  Indeed,  there  is  little  need  of  opening 
your  eyes.  You  may  take  the  testimony  through 
your  ears.  Ay,  and  if  both  eyes  and  ears  were  closed 
you  could  scarcely  escape  conviction  from  the  press- 
ure of  the  atmosphere.  The  very  thought  to  speak 
or  live  for  Christ,  if  there  be  not  an  uncommon 
strength  of  principle  behind  it,  is  crushed,  almost 
before  it  is  a  thought,  by  the  overwhelming  pressure 
of  worldliness.  Test  it.  Take  first,  personal  obliga- 
tion to  Christ.  It  is  rare  to  find  the  man  whose  life 
is  intelligible  on  the  assumption  that  he  is  supremely 
devoted  to  Christ.  If  you  know  such  a  man  look  at 
him.  He  has  no  pride,  no  covetousness,  no  self- 
seeking,  no  indolence,  no  selfishness  in  any  form. 


SIGNS    OF    THE    TIMES.  203 

He  is  pure,  peaceable,  gentle,  easy  to  be  entreated, 
full  of  mercy  and  good  fruits,  without  greed,  and 
without  guile.  He  can  say  with  truth,  "  I  seek  not 
yours,  but  you  ;  and  this  one  thing  I  do,  forgetting 
those  things  which  are  behind  "  —  that  is,  any  Chris- 
tian attainments  already  made  —  "  and  reaching  forth 
unto  those  which  are  before,  I  press  toward  the  mark 
for  the  prize  of  the  high  calling  of  God  in  Christ 
Jesus."  That  is  his  sole  end  and  aim,  and  all  the 
world  are  welcome  to  know  it. 

Now  it  is  not  rash  to  affirm  that  this  class  of  men 
is  a  small  class.  It  might  be  larger.  Recruits  might 
be  won  to  it  if  recruiting  officers  were  abroad  who 
were  up  to  the  work.  Such  officers  must  know  their 
men  ;  must  know  their  circumstances.  But  whence 
shall  we  get  them  ?  Our  theological  seminaries  can't 
furnish  them.  They  will  do  what  they  can,  with 
their  apparatus.  "  But,"  they  tell  us,  "  we  don't  make 
the  men  ;  we  just  take  the  men  who  come  to  us,  as 
they  come,  and  do  the  best  we  can  with  the  stuff  we 
find  in  them."  That's  the  way.  Since  the  world 
began  we  all  shift  the  responsibility  as  far  as  we  can 
on  to  other  men's  shoulders.  Well,  we  've  got  to 
have  men  who  can  and  will  do  the  work  ;  not  merely 
men  who  can  write  sermons  ;  that  is  not  the  want 
of  our  day ;  we  must  have  those  who  can  win  men 
from  worldliness  to  holiness,  and  of  course  such  as 
have  not  only  the  theory,  but  also  the  practice  of 
godliness  ;  men  who  have  the  right  to  say,  "  Follow 
me  ;  "  men  who  can  find  out  what  their  church  mem- 


204  THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

bers  are  competent  to  do,  and  smooth  the  way.  to 
the  doing  of  it.  Some  of  the  pastors  of  our  churches 
are  concerned  about  the  influence  of  the  Christian 
Associations.  Their  concern  is  misplaced.  It  is  not 
for  the  Christian  Associations  that  they  have  need 
to  be  anxious,  but  for  the  pastors  who  are  not  apt  to 
teach ;  who  have  no  facility  in  starting  their  young 
people  in  Christian  work.  Those  who  have  the  love 
of  Christ  in  their  souls,  in  any  considerable  measure, 
will  work.  And  if  their  nominal  pastors  are  so  ab- 
sorbed in  sermon-making  as  to  have  neither  time  nor 
head  for  initiating  them,  they  will  join  a  neutral  class, 
that  is,  a  Christian  Association.  The  minister  who 
would  save  his  young  men  must  see  to  it  that  he  fur- 
nishes them  more  facilities  for  working  for  Christ 
than  they  can  find  elsewhere.  We  have  fallen  upon 
co-operative  times,  and  the  wise  man  is  he  who  knows 
it  and  falls  in  with  the  fact,  and  governs  himself  and 
his  church  accordingly.  Christian  men  are  not  so 
intolerant  of  government  as  some  would  have  us  be- 
lieve, though  they  no  longer  believe  in  the  divine 
right  of  kings  or  ministers  to  be  self-willed  or  self- 
seeking.  If  men  are  more  intolerant  of  theoretic  in- 
culcations than  heretofore  —  as  they  are  —  those 
who  have  spiritual  life  desire  more  than  ever  to  be 
shown  how  they  may  make  that  life  productive.  A 
church  trained  to  work  for  Christ  will  not  hang  upon 
the  skirts  of  the  pastor,  as  some  churches  do,  a  dead 
weight,  moving  only  as  the  pastor  moves,  and  stop- 
ping when  he  stops.     Were  all  our  churches  rightly 


SIGNS    OF   THE   TIMES.  20^ 

trained,  like  the  compensated  watch,  they  would  defy 
the  inevitable  change  of  life,  nor  dream  of  deserting 
the  church  and  dropping  all  labor  when  age  or  infir- 
mities preclude  the  pastor's  service,  and  render  their 
work  the  more  important.  What  are  we  to  think  of 
soldiers  of  the  cross  who  play  truant  as  often  as  their 
leader  is  unable  to  attend  the  review  of  the  church 
meeting  ?  What  of  those  who  will  attend  a  dress-parade 
once  a  week  if  their  commanding  officer  will  make  him- 
self superb  ?  Will  the  kingdom  of  Satan  be  shaken 
by  any  such  soldiery?  Will  they  save  even  them- 
selves ?  When,  and  where,  and  how  is  the  remedy 
to  be  applied  ?  The  ministers  of  to-day  must  train 
the  families  whose  sons  are  by-and-by  to  tread  in 
their  footprints  ;  train  them  to  work  for  Christ  before 
they  enter  school,  college,  or  seminary.  We  know 
that  mind  must  set  matter  in  motion  ;  that  the  heart 
must  move  the  mind.  Deep  convictions  there  must 
be  somewhere.  Some  one  whose  heart  the  Lord  has 
moved  must  make  a  beginning.  And  to  whom  may 
we  so  properly  look  as  to  those  whom  the  Lord  has 
put  in  trust  with  the  care  of  souls  ? 

Dear  brethren,  pray  the  Lord  to  give  you  deep 
convictions  of  the  needs  of  our  time.  And  pray  Him 
to  give  you  some  co-workers  capable  of  like  deep 
convictions.  Little  can  be  done  with  men  or  women 
who  have  no  deep  sense  of  the  love  of  Jesus,  no 
controlling  desire  and  purpose  to  recommend  Jesus 
to  others  and  win  them  to  His  service.  The  signs 
of  our  times  are  favorable  now  for  an  upward  move. 


206  THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

The  Spirit  of  the  Lord  has  begun  to  stir  the  hearts 
of  some  of  our  church  members ;  and  some  of  those 
who  are  coming  out  from  the  world  may  surely  be 
counted  on  for  a  higher  type  of  piety  than  has  pre- 
vailed. Would  to  God  that  all  who  now  come  to 
Christ  might  so  receive  the  Holy  Ghost  as  never  to 
recede  from  the  high  ground  which  young  converts 
feel  in  their  souls  they  ought  always  to  occupy. 

When  Jesus  was  born  in  Bethlehem  of  Judea  there 
were  signs ;  his  star  was  seen  in  the  East.  The 
angel  of  the  Lord  came  down  upon  the  shepherds ; 
and  the  multitude  of  the  heavenly  host  were  with  the 
angels,  praising  God,  and  promising  good-will  to 
men. 

When  Jesus  was  crucified,  there  were  signs  in  the 
heavens,  and  on  the  earth;  there  was  darkness  on 
the  land,  the  veil  of  the  temple  was  rent,  the  earth 
quaked,  and  the  graves  were  opened. 

When  the  apostles  and  first  disciples  began  to 
proclaim  an  exalted  Prince  and  Saviour,  the  Holy 
Ghost  was  poured  out  upon  them.  When  released 
from  arrest,  they  returned  to  their  own  company, 
and  resuming  prayer  and  praise  to  God,  the  place 
was  shaken;  they  were  all  filled  with  the  Holy 
Ghost,  and  spoke  the  Word  of  God  with  boldness  ; 
memorable  signs. 

The  great  reformation  of  the  sixteenth  century 
was  signalized  by  fitting  signs.  Luther  and  his  as- 
sociates were  filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  asserted 


SIGNS    OF    THE    TIMES.  20/ 

the  truth  of  God  with  great  courage.  The  seven- 
teenth century  had  its  signs ;  our  fathers  were  puri- 
fied in  tlie  furnace  of  affliction.  They  were  endued 
with  courage  to  do  and  to  endure.  Like  Abraliam 
of  old,  they  were  obedient  to  the  heavenly  calling, 
and  went  out  from  their  native  land,  not  knowing 
whither  they  went,  but  well  assured  that  afflictions 
awaited  them.  Like  Paul,  they  consulted  not  with 
flesh  and  blood,  but  went  forth,  bravely  resolved  to 
make  full  proof  of  their  ministry  of  mercy  to  a  fallen 
world. 

The  spirit  of  noble  daring,  the  spirit  of  heaven- 
born  philanthropy,  the  spirit  of  missions,  is  an  un- 
mistakable sign  of  the  coming  of  memorable  days ; 
and  each  age  has  its  befitting  signs.  In  1857,  the 
towering  of  human  pride  and  self-indulgence  had 
reached  a  climax,  and  the  need  of  reformation  was 
signalized  by  a  strong  wind  of  commercial  disaster 
which  rent  the  mountains,  and  brought  down  high 
looks  and  proud  thoughts.  In  earlier  days  of  the 
world's  history,  the  lesson  might  have  sufficed  a  gen- 
eration ;  but  dull  scholars  need  frequent  lessons,  and 
we  are  already  receiving  another. 

Can  ye  not  discern  the  signs  of  the  times .''  Is  it 
true  that  there  are  signs,  marked  and  expressive  as 
any  of  former  days,  challenging  our  attention  ?  Yes, 
it  is  true. 

Notice  first  the  extension  of  civil  liberty  and  the 
toleration  of  evangelical  Christianity.  See  how  the 
nations  are  everywhere  opening  to  the  reception  of 
the  Gospel. 


208  THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

2.  Notice  the  constant  expansion  of  the  missionary 
spirit,  harmonizing  with  this. 

3.  Estimate,  if  possible,  the  effects  of  the  great 
revivals  of  the  past  three  years,  in  preparing  the  way 
of  the  Lord. 

4.  Do  not  fail  to  consider  the  spreading  of  the 
Scriptures  in  all  lands,  particularly  in  France,  Italy 
and  Russia.  In  France,  five  hundred  thousand  of 
the  soldiers  have  committed  the  Gospel  of  St.  John 
to  memory,  entire.  In  China,  the  rebels  who  appear 
fast  becoming  the  dominant  party,  have  received  not 
a  little  of  the  Bible,  it  is  more  than  probable  from 
Judson's  labors  on  the  borders  of  the  land. 

5.  Notice  the  upheaving  of  the  nations,  and  the 
very  striking  correspondence  of  their  condition  with 
our  Saviour's  description  in  the  twent3'-first  chapter 
of  Luke.  From  China  to  Italy,  has  there  not  been 
on  the  earth,  "  distress  of  nations  with  perplexity  .'*  " 
And  lately  in  our  fatherland,  have  not  "men's 
hearts  been  failing  them  for  fear,  and  for  looking 
after  things  which  are  coming  on  the  earth  ?  "  Their 
fears  of  a  French  invasion  may  not  be  realized ;  but 
how  often  has  the  undefined  shadow  of  a  coming 
evil  been  true  to  the  reality,  though  varying  in  form 
from  the  impending  calamity.  That  sins  well  suited 
to  provoke  the  chastisement  of  the  Lord  infect  all 
Christendom  is  only  too  apparent.  And  therefore  it 
is  that  men's  hearts  fail  them  for  fear. 

6.  And  now,  at  length,  the  finger  of  destiny  points 
unerringly  at  our  own  land,  hitherto  almost  exempt 


SIGNS    OF    THE    TIMES.  209 

from  the  afflictions  of  the  nations.  It  is  hardly  pos- 
sible for  any  dispassionate  observer  to  consider  the 
course  of  the  leaders  of  the  secession  treason,  and 
impute  the  full  measure  of  the  crime  to  them.  No, 
we  shall  be  blind  indeed,  not  to  discern  the  evidence 
that  this  is  nothing  less  than  the  doing  of  the  great 
adversary  of  all  good.  The  Jubilee  of  our  Mission- 
ary Board  was  not  an  event  to  escape  his  notice ; 
not  a  commemoration  about  which  he  could  be  in- 
different. From  five  to  ten  thousand  persons,  repre- 
senting the  intelligence  and  the  piety  of  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  the  saints  of  the  Most  High  assembled 
to  return  thanks  to  Almighty  God  for  his  great  work 
so  well  begun,  of  giving  the  kingdoms  of  this  world 
to  Christ;  think  you  Satan  could  be  insensible  to 
that  ?     No ! 

7.  Once  more,  observe  the  spread  of  the  spirit  of 
prayer.  What  an  omen  is  this?  Men  everywhere 
daily  assembling  by  prayer  and  supplication,  with 
thanksgiving,  to  make  known  their  requests  to 
God;  and  by  necessary  consequence,  meeting  so 
many,  and  such  marked  answers  to  prayer,  that  faith 
in  God  has  been  set  forward  centuries  on  •centuries, 
in  the  past  three  years. 

No  wonder,  then,  that  Satan  has  come  down  in 
great  wrath,  because  of  the  accumulating  signs  that 
his  time  is  short.  His  kingdom  decayeth  and  wax- 
eth  old ;  who  can  say  that  it  is  not  ready  to  vanish 
away  ? 

Can  ye  not  discern  the  signs  of  the  times  ? 


2IO  THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

Are  not  China,  Japan,  India,  Africa,  France, 
Italy,  and  many  more  sections  of  the  earth  yielding 
to  the  sword  of  the  Spirit  ?  Is  not  Europe  melting 
before  the  brightness  of  his  coming  ?  Has  not 
Satan,  like  a  roaring  lion,  in  fresh  rage,  come  over 
to  this  hitherto  almost  neglected^  people,  because  his 
fortresses,  once  so  strong  in  other  lands,  are  now- 
undermined  and  tottering  to  their  fall  ?  Our  small 
population,  small  as  compared  with  his  uncounted  mil- 
lions, may  have  seemed  hitherto  almost  insignificant 
to  him.  But  the  power  of  prayer  has  awakened  the 
demon  to  the  fact  that  faith  is  more  fatal  to  his  power 
than  numbers.  That  the  agreement  in  prayer,  per- 
haps we  may  say,  commencing  in  America  and 
spreading  through  Christendom,  has  greatly  alarmed 
him,  we  may  easily  believe.  That  it  may  have  stim- 
ulated him  to  endeavor  to  break  the  spell  by  stirring 
up  enmity  and  bitterness  between  brethren  in  this 
land  is  not  difficult  of  belief.  To  turn  the  praying 
people  of  this  land  from  prayer,  he  would  surely  spare 
no  pains ;  and  what  so  likely,  in  his  estimation,  to  do 
this,  as  the  fear  of  war  ? 

But  in  the  Lord  is  our  strength  ;  and  in  the  turn- 
ing of  our  people  by  prayer  and  earnest  supplication 
to  him,  there  is  hope,  not  only  of  deliverance  out  of 
this  special  danger,  but  of  bringing  on  a  better  day 
for  the  cause  of  Christ  than  any  we  have  ever  seen. 

"And  when  these  things  begin  to  come  to  pass, 
then  look  up,  and  lift  up  your  heads,  for  your  re- 
demption draweth  nigh." 


XXL 


THE   SECRET   OF   BLESSEDNESS. 


SUPPOSE  it  had  been  put  to  you  to  guess  what 
would  be  the  first  instruction  of  the  Son  of  God 
to  the  lost  men  he  came  to  redeem  ;  would  it  have 
occurred  to  you,  do  you  think,  to  say,  "  Blessed  are 
the  poor  in  spirit  ?  " 

But  since  He  has  said  it,  is  there  any  difficulty  in 
approving  what  he  said,  as  the  thing  most  fitting 
and  most  needed  ?  To-day,  what  stands  most  in  the 
way  of  personal  improvement  ?  Is  it  not  thinking  of 
one's  self  more  highly  than  we  ought  ? 

What  is  the  origin  of  this  evil  ?  It  is  simply  that 
God  is  not  in  the  heart,  nor  in  the  thought  of  the 
self-satisfied  :  "  And  even  as  they  did  not  like  to  re- 
tain God  in  their  knowledge,  God  gave  them  over  to 
a  reprobate  mind."  "Professing  themselves  to  be 
wise,  they  became  fools." 

It  is  only  by  excluding  God  from  our  minds,  that 
we  can  be  self-satisfied.  It  is  just  this  that  men 
commonly  do.     And  so  when  called  upon  to  repent, 


212  THE   CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

the  prompt  response  is,  "  Of  what  should  I  repent  ? 
I  am  not  a  bad  man,  thank  God ;  quite  tlie  contrary. 
I  am  an  honest  man.  I  pay  my  debts.  I  am  a  good 
citizen ;  a  good  neighbor,  husband,  father,  friend. 
I  am  a  good  deal  better  man  than  some  who  profess 
more."  All  this,  you  see,  is  bringing  one's  self  to 
man's  tribunal ;  not  to  God's.  The  race  is  a  lost 
race.  Shall  we  take  a  lost  man  for  our  standard  of 
comparison  ?  No,  indeed  !  Jesus  came  to  redeem 
these  lost  ones  from  their  sins.  And  therefore  he 
pronounces  that  man  blessed  who  has  turned  from 
man's  tribunal  to  God's ;  who  has  compared  himself 
with  God,  and  found  occasion  for  deep  sorrow, 
shame,  self-condemnation,  repentance,  and  earnest 
calling  upon  God. 

To  such  the  kingdom  of  Heaven  is  offered ;  eter- 
nal life.  "  And  this  is  life  eternal,  to  know  Thee, 
the  only  true  God,  and  Jesus  Christ  whom  thou  hast 
sent." 

Here  is  at  once  the  remedy  for  the  greatest  of 
evils,  and  the  secret  and  recipe  for  the  highest  hap- 
piness. To  know  God  in  Christ  so  intimately  as  to 
become  dead  to  self  and  sin,  and  alive  unto  God, 
through  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord.  In  the  light  of  His 
love  all  our  righteousness  becomes  as  filthy  rags  ; 
and  we  would  as  soon  glory  in  the  one  as  in  the 
other. 

Let  us  see  how  this  is  in  common  life.  Here  is 
one  man  making  himself  unhappy  because  he  has 
fewer  of  the  good  things  of  this  life  than  some  of  his 


THE    SECRET    OF    BLESSEDNESS.  213 

fellows.  But  "  a  man's  life  consists  not  in  the  abun- 
dance of  the  things  which  he  possesses."  Jesus 
does  not  say,  "  Blessed  are  the  rich."  On  the  con- 
trary, he  does  say,  "  How  hardly  shall  they  that  have 
riches  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  Heaven."  Another 
sorrows  for  lack  of  health,  strength,  unattainable 
wisdom,  or  skill,  or  the  honor  of  man. 

Is  his  blessedness  precluded  through  lack  of  either, 
or  all  of  these?  No;  but  he  thinks  so;  and  thinks 
so  because  he  has  never  subordinated  his  will  to  the 
will  of  God ;  his  wisdom  to  the  wisdom  of  God. 
Notwithstanding  he  has  been  warned  of  God,  that 
riches  are  deceitful,  that  man's  wisdom  is  a  snare, 
that  the  honor  of  man  is  a  hinderance  hardly  to  be 
surmounted  ;  he  is  clamorous  for  these ;  and  sure 
that  to  him,  at  all  events,  they  would  be  helpful. 
This  is  the  mistake  of  the  race ;  of  the  people  of 
eighteen  hundred  years  ago ;  and  of  the  people  of 
to-day.  Let  us  then  look  to  Jesus,  the  author  and 
finisher  of  our  faith,  He  humbled  himself  to  become 
a  man ;  He  was  born  of  low  estate  ;  He  preached 
the  Gospel  to  the  poor ;  He  made  friends  of  those 
who  needed  him  ;  He  ate  with  publicans  and  sin- 
ners ;  He  bore  the  griefs  and  carried  the  sorrows  of 
all  suffering  ones.  When  He  was  reviled.  He  re- 
viled not  again.  When  He  was  threatened.  He  an- 
swered not.  He  did  all  this  "  knowing  "  — not  only 
that  He  was  sinless,  but  "  that  the  Father  had  given 
all  things  into  His  hands,  and  that  He  was  come 
from  God,  and  went  to  God." 


214  THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY, 

Brethren,  if  these  things  are  so,  what  manner  of 
persons  ought  we  to  be,  in  all  holy  conversation  and 
godliness,  seeing  that  each  and  every  comparison  of 
our  lives  wdth  His,  reveals  pride,  indolence,  impa- 
tience, ingratitude,  and  all  manner  of  unprofitable- 
ness. 


XXII. 


PRAYER-MEETINGS. 

THE  question  is  often  asked,  "  How  shall  we 
render  prayer-meetings  more  interesting  ? " 
The  question  has  as  many  meanings  as  persons  to 
ask  it.  I  once  heard  a  brother  say,  "  What  we  want 
in  this  meeting  is  not  exhortation,  not  instruction; 
we  want  experience."  I  could  not  withhold  the  in- 
quiry, "Do  you  want  an  experience  which  is  not 
instructive  ?  We  do  not  want  the  experience  of  an 
empty  head  or  an  unfeeling  heart."  One  says, 
"  What  we  want  is  a  good  many  speakers."  "  No," 
says  another,  "  we  want  a  good  many  prayers,  and 
the  three-minute  rule  enforced."  Another  says, 
"  We  want  a  good  deal  of  singing,  prompt  and 
hearty." 

"  No,  brother,  no ;  we  may  want  these  things,  but 
these  things  are  not  our  main  want.  We  want  a  full 
spiritual  life;  we  want  Christians  attuned  to  contin- 
uous sympathy  with  God  and  His  W^ord,  and  with 
man  and  his  circumstances,  and  the  power  to  con- 
nect the  one  with  the  other.     Our  ordinary  attempts 


2l6  THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

to  get  up  a  good  prayer-meeting  are  simply  endeavors 
to  get  more  out  of  our  members  than  there  is  in 
them.  The  utterances  in  exhortation,  exposition, 
experience,  and  prayer  can  never  much  exceed  the 
daily  life. 

Well,  what  is  to  be  done  about  it  ? 

Ah  !  that 's  for  you  to  say ;  and  if  it  is  to  be  said 
intelligently,  we  must  first  agree  upon  piety,  what 
it  is. 

It  is  the  fear  of  God  ;  the  love  of  God  ;  the  wor- 
ship of  God ;  the  service  of  God.  It  is  a  practical 
fear  and  love  ;  a  controlling  fear  and  love,  involving 
conscientious  and  loving  worship  and  service,  with 
heart  enough  in  it  to  make  us  ready  for  any  sacrifice. 
Now  this  brings  us  round  to  the  question,  "  How  shall 
we  get  such  love  and  service  out  of  the  whole  body 
of  our  church  members,  and  especially  in  the  prayer- 
meetings  ?  " 

I  answer,  by  prevailing  upon  them  to  heed  the 
Apostle's  injunction :  "  I  beseech  you,  therefore, 
brethren,  by  the  mercies  of  God,  that  ye  present  your 
bodies  a  living  sacrifice,  holy  and  acceptable  unto 
God,  which  is  your  reasonable  service."  This  they 
will  not  heed  to-day;  therefore  to-day  you  cannot, 
from  the  whole  body  of  the  church,  have  more  inter- 
esting prayer-meetings.  You  must  therefore  begin 
with  individuals.  Every  individual  who  can  be  per- 
suaded to  do  this  you  may  count  in  as  one  contribu- 
tion toward  your  desire.  Each  one  who  does  this 
will  begin  at  once  to  have  an  experience,  and  an  in- 


PRAYER-MEETINGS.  2 1  / 

structive  experience ;  a  conflict  with  the  world,  and 
with  the  things  which  are  in  the  world.  When  he 
speaks  to  man  or  to  God  out  of  that  experience  he 
will  speak  to  the  hearts  of  his  brethren,  and  his 
words  and  prayers  will  make  part  of  an  interesting 
prayer-meeting.  There  is  not  a  day  in  which  the 
living,  earnest  Christian  does  not  find  occasion  in  his 
secular  business  to  serve  God  with  what  costs  him 
much.  There  is  not  a  day  in  which  he  who  takes  all 
things  from  God  will  not  find  God  in  all  things. 
Business  is  no  hinderance  to  prayer,  to  any  man  who 
gets  his  business  from  the  Lord.  But  there  are 
numbers  of  church  members  who  have  not  God  in 
all  their  thoughts  from  Sunday  to  Sunday ;  and  so 
on  week-days  they  have  in  effect  no  God  to  pray  to, 
and  work  of  God  to  pray  over.  And  this  is  the 
reason  why  prayer-meetings  are  not  more  interest- 
ing ;  nor  can  they  be  more  interesting  till  all  this  is 
changed.  Christian  men  must  keep  out  of  a  busi- 
ness which  cannot  be  prayed  over ;  must  do  only 
such  business  as  can  be  prayed  over  ;  only  so  much 
as  can  be  prayed  over ;  only  in  such  ways  as  can  be 
commended  to  God  for  His  sanction. 

I  speak  as  to  wise  men  ;  to  experienced  business 
men  ;  and  you  know  that  this  is  so.  The  hard-work- 
ing man  who  is  working  for  God,  building  himself 
up  on  his  most  holy  faith,  praying  in  the  Holy  Ghost, 
and  keeping  himself  in  the  love  of  God,  never  finds 
his  work  a  hinderance  to  prayer  in  or  out  of  the 
prayer-meetings. 


xxiri. 


CHRIST    HERE   AND    NOW. 


IS  it  not  strange,  that  while  we  are  all  so  ready  to 
say,  Yes,  '^Christ  is  all,''  there  is  still  as  much 
need  as  ever  to  insist,  urge,  entreat,  "  Oh,  believe  in 
your  present  Saviour!  Believe  in  the  //z7>^^  Christ ! 
Believe  that  Jesus  is  7iea7'er  to  you  than  the  nearest 
and  dearest  of  all  beside." 

Just  now,  as  truly  as  eighteen  hundred  years  ago, 
Jesus  is  ever  saying,  "  According  to  your  faith  be  it 
unto  you  ; "  "  If  thou  canst  believe,  all  things  are 
possible  to  him  that  believeth ; "  I  am  ready  to 
reveal  Myself  to  you  to  the  utmost  of  your  desire  to 
receive  Me  ;  you  may  be  as  near  and  as  dear  to  Me 
as  your  heart  craves  ;  but  remember,  whosoever  he 
be  of  you  that  forsaketh  not  all  that  he  hath,  he  can- 
not be  My  disciple ;  much  more  can  he  not  be 
specially  near  to  me  and  conscious  of  My  nearness 
to  him,  and  of  My  peculiar  love  for  him. 

Are  you  exclaiming,  "  There  it  is  again  !  I  don't 
understand  it !  If  Jesus  is  so  near,  so  tender,  so 
loving,  as  you  represent  Him,  why  must  I  forsake  all 
218 


CHRIST    HERE    AND    NOW.  219 

for  Him  ?  Does  he  grudge  us  the  human  friend- 
ships he  himself  has  formed  us  to  appreciate  ? 
Would  He  stifle  the  tastes  He  created  in  us  ?  Is 
there  any  religion  or  virtue  in  turning  our  hearts  to 
stone  toward  all  human  relations  ?  Must  one  be 
insensible  to  all  that  is  good  and  lovely  in  order  to 
be  acceptable  to  Christ  ?  " 

My  dear  brother,  Jesus  Himself  has  answered 
you;  "According  to  your  faith  be  it  unto  you." 
He  has  said  enough.  Only  your  faith  can  interpret 
what  He  has  said.  His  words  do  not  perplex  the 
heart  that  is  full  of  faith.  "  The  secret  of  the  Lord 
is  with  them  that  fear  Him."  There  is  a  secret  for 
love  to  unlock.  The  key  is  freely  tendered  you. 
To  them  that  are  without  the  pale  of  tender  love,  all 
these  things  are  spoken  in  parables.  Is  this  peculiar 
to  Jesus  only.?  Do  we  not  find  the  same  thing 
everywhere  among  men  ?  Do  you  reveal  yourself  to 
all  alike  ?  Could  you  do  it  if  you  would  ?  Is  it  not 
impossible  to  open  yourself  fully  except  to  loving 
sympathy  ?  Can  you  find  such  loving  sympathy  in 
one  who  will  run  no  risks  for  you,  who  is  closely  cal- 
culating whether  or  not  it  will  pay  to  be  outspoken 
and  unlimited  in  devotion  to  you  ?  Would  not  the 
world  be  a  wilderness  and  a  desert  to  you,  if  you 
could  not  feel  that  you  had  some  friend  or  friends 
whose  friendship  had  no  limits  but  your  need  of 
them  and  your  love  for  them  ? 

Well,  as  it  is  with  you  in  this  matter,  so  is  it  with 
Jesus ;  He  desires  devoted  friends.     To  such  he  is 


220  THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

both  willing  and  desirous  to  reveal  himself.  Are 
you  a  devoted  friend  ?  Are  you  in  truth  prepared  to 
ask,  Lord,  what  wilt  Thou  have  me  to  do  ?  Then 
seize  your  privilege.  Lay  yourself  anew  at  His  feet. 
Consider  well  how  much  you  mean  by  it.  Are  you 
desirous  that  He  should  employ  in  His  service  every 
talent  He  has  entrusted  to  you  ?  Then  tell  Him  so. 
Look  about  you,  and  consider  how  you  can  invest 
your  powers  so  as  most  to  honor  Him,  and  to  induce 
others  to  do  the  same.  Quench  not  the  Holy  Spirit 
ever  prompting  you  to  holy  enterprise,  but  encourage 
His  suggestions  by  your  promptitude  in  turning  them 
to  the  best  account. 

Be  sure  there  are  revelations  of  Jesus'  love  await- 
ing His  devoted  friends,  far,  far  excelling  anything 
you  have  ever  received  from  any  dear  friend  of  your 
family.  If  you  would  have  them,  do  not  waste  pre- 
cious time  in  bandying  questions  as  to  why  things 
are  thus  and  so ;  or  why  they  need  be  so  ;  but  put 
Him  to  the  proof  by  renewed,  earnest,  well-consid- 
ered, and  all-including  consecrations  of  yourself  and 
all  you  have  and  are,  and  all  you  may  possibly  be- 
come. And  so  shall  you  know  for  yourself  that  the 
love  of  Jesus  far  exceeds  all  other  love  ;  that  Jesus 
Himself  is  the  chiefest  among  ten  thousand  and  alto- 
gether lovely. 

O  where  is  our  enthusiasm  for  Jesus  ?  It  ought 
to  dim  the  lustre  of  all  other  enthusiasms  as  the 
rising  sun  puts  out  the  twinkling  stars. 


XXIV. 


IS   GOD   GOOD? 


SOME  minds  are  never  at  rest,  because,  they  say, 
there  is  so  much  unhappiness  in  the  world.  If 
God  were  good  would  He  permit  so  much  suffering  ? 
There  are  others  who  dare  not  question  the  goodness 
of  God,  whose  question  is.  How  can  a  good  God 
permit  it  ?  All  this  questioning  proceeds  from  one 
mistaken  assumption,  namely  this :  that  happiness, 
immediate,  present  happiness,  is  the  first  thing  to  be 
considered.  Their  notion  is  that  a  good  God  would 
surely  put  this  first  in  all  His  thoughts  and  plans  for 
man.  I  suspect  that  to  most  men  it  never  once 
occurs  to  question  if  they  are  surely  right  in  thus 
thinking.  But  persons  who  think  thus,  make  one 
grand  leap  over  all  God's  holiness  and  man's  sinful- 
ness^ as  something  not  needful  to  pause  over ;  some- 
thing which  has  no  relation  whatever  to  the  matter 
in  hand.  "  We  were  speaking,"  say  they,  "  of  the 
goodfiess  of  God." 

But  God  is  just  as  holy  as  He  is  good.     And  He 
hates  sin  as  strongly  as  He  loves  holiness.     And  as 


222  THR    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

His  holiness  fills  heaven  and  makes  the  atmosphere 
of  the  place ;  as  it  fills  the  earth  and  makes  all  that 
is  really  good  in  it;  as  sin  is  the  direst  of  evils 
and  entirely  opposed  to  His  holiness ;  the  first  and 
greatest  thing  God  can  do  for  man,  is  to  wean  and 
purge  him  from  his  sin,  and  transform  him  into  His 
own  likeness.  This,  unquestionably,  is  the  first 
thing  with  God. 

In  pursuing  this  grand  paramount  aim  it  often  be- 
comes necessary  for  God  to  invade  man's  happiness. 
Many  a  time  only  the  sharpest  trial  will  wean  a  man 
from  his  idols  ;  only  such  trials  will  secure  attention 
to  those  Christian  graces  which  God  holds  in  the 
highest  esteem.  And  so  it  is  written,  "  My  brethren, 
count  it  all  joy  when  ye  fall  into  divers  temptations ; 
knowing  this,  that  the  trial  of  your  faith  worketh  pa- 
tience." 

When  we  place  a  child  in  a  good  school,  is  the 
child's  immediate  happiness  the  first  consideration 
with  us  ?  No  ;  our  first  consideration  is  the  most 
valuable,  useful,  and  suitable  education.  This  edu- 
cation, we  say,  will  greatly  contribute  to  the  happi- 
ness of  our  child  in  the  end.  For  the  present,  it 
will  call  for  many  a  self-denial  and  much  patience  ; 
not  with  the  intent  to  diminish  the  child's  happiness, 
but  to  modify,  to  ennoble,  and  ultimately  greatly  to 
increase  it. 

God's  care  for  man's  happiness  is  incomparably 
greater  than  we  think.  But  God's  estimate  of  hap- 
piness and  what  makes  happiness  is  very  unlike  ours. 


IS    GOD    GOOD  ?  223 

Mere  freedom  from  physical  pain  and  inconvenience 
does  not  weigh  with  Him  as  it  commonly  weighs 
with  us.  The  skilful  surgeon  whose  operation  is  to 
save  a  life  does  not  bestow  very  much  thought  upon 
the  brief  pain  which  his  operation  incidentally  in- 
volves. As  a  humane  man  he  would  give  as  little 
unnecessary  pain  as  may  be ;  but  his  absorbing  con- 
cern is  to  save  life. 

Our  heavenly  Father's  care  is  to  save  life ;  to  de- 
liver us  from  every  spiritual  malady ;  to  recreate  us 
in  the  perfect  image  of  His  Son.  In  persistently 
following  out  this  design,  through  a  lifetime,  with 
infinite  patience,  tenderness,  and  skill,  is  there  not 
more  abundant  evidence  that  God  is  good  than  we 
could  infer  from  the  filling  of  our  cup  with  natural 
pleasures,  or  the  screening  us  from  poverty  and 
pain? 


XXV. 


AM    I    A    CHRISTIAN  ? 


AM  I  really  in  Christ  ?  To  many  a  man  this  is 
a  distressing  and  unanswerable  question.  Not 
merely  to  such  as  ask  it  casually  and  carelessly  and 
then  forget  it,  but  to  those  who  ask  it  often  and 
thoughtfully,  who  in  fact  never  lay  the  question  by. 
Let  me  tell  you,  brother,  why  you  find  the  question 
unanswerable. 

1.  There  is  no  probability  that  it  is,  as  you  have 
thought,  because  there  must  needs  be  some  who  cannot 
know;  and  because  you  are  probably  one  of  that 
number. 

2.  It  is  not  because  you  are  a  sinner.  All  men 
are  sinners.  All  men  are /^r/^//Vzr/j/ sinful.  All  men 
are  great  sinners.  The  answer  to  all  this  is,  Christ 
died  for  the  chief  of  sinners,  and  is  able  to  save  to 
the  uttermost  all  who  come  unto  God  by  Him. 

3.  The  real  reason  is,  that  you  have  never  settled 
in  your  own  soul  that  God  is.  Observe,  I  do  not  say 
that  you  have  any  doubt  that  there  is  a  God.  Of 
course,  you  believe  that.     Every  one  believes  that. 

224 


AM    I    A    CHRISTIAN  ?  225  ■ 

But  to  believe  there  is  a  God  is  one  thing ;  to  believe 
that  the  God  of  the  Bible  is,  and  that  He  is  ever 
present  with  you ;  that  He  is  what  He  says  He  is  to 
you ;  a  loving,  helpful,  constant,  omnipotent  Friend ; 
—  that  is  much  more.  Now  it  is  written,  "  He  that 
Cometh  to  God  must  believe  that  He  is''  Your 
trouble  is  that  you  have  n't  settled  that.  You  ask, 
How  can  I  settle  it  ?  I  answer,  By  obeying  your 
Lord's  command:  Believe!  Do  not  think  to  evade 
your  obligation  by  replying.  That  is  the  very  thing  I 
cannot  do.  You  can  obey.  You  can  believe.  I 
know  that  faith  is  the  gift  of  God.  I  know  too  that 
He  is  willing  to  give  it  to  you.  When  God  made  you 
in  His  own  image.  He  gave  you  a  power  to  will,  sav- 
oring almost  of  His  own  omnipotence.  He  made 
you,  in  this,  able  to  trample  your  hinderances  under 
foot.  Let  me  tell  you  my  own  experience  :  When  I 
began  to  pray,  I  said,  as  I  kneeled  at  the  foot  of  my 
bed,  "  Now  I  am  not  going  to  pray  to  this  bed-post, 
the  bureau,  the  walls,  or  the  gelling,  I  am  going  to 
pray  to  my  Lord.  He  is  here  ;  I  know  that  he  is 
here.  Were  my  father  in  the  adjoining  room,  though 
I  see  him  not,  hear  him  not,  yet,  assured  of  his  being 
there,  by  raising  my  voice  I  could  make  him  hear. 
I  know  Jesus  is  here.  There  is  no  need  to  raise  my 
voice  ;  there  is  no  wall  between  us  ;  only  a  thin  veil  of 
sense  ;  only  a  mist  of  habit,  the  habit  of  not  realizing. 
I.  am  going  to  break  through  that  veil  and  mist.  I 
will  speak  with  Jesus,  I  will  tell  Him  all  my  heart ; 
He  will  hear  me,  and  I  will  therefore  tell  Him  just 


226  THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

what  I  think,  fee],  wish,  intend  ;  and  I  will  not  let 
Him  go  except  He  bless  me.  Not  one  single  wish  or 
utterance  of  any  kind  will  I  permit  but  what  expresses 
just  what  I  wish  Him  to  hear,  but  just  what  I  mean 
He  shall  hear ;  and  I  will  never  give  over  praying 
until  I  know  He  hears  me  ;  until  I  realize  His  hearing, 
as  entirely  as  I  reahze  that  my  father  and  my  mother 
hear  me  when  I  am  speaking  with  them."  Some- 
times it  required  a  struggle  of  two,  three,  or  even  five 
minutes  to  break  through  the  veil ;  occasionally  even 
a  longer  struggle  was  required  ;  it  might  extend  to 
seven  or  eight  minutes ;  until  the  Spirit  taught  me 
this  bit  of  common  sense  ;  that  a  speedy  and  sure  cure 
for  wandering  thoughts  is,  to  tell  the  Lord  all  about 
the  things  wandered  to.  Now,  my  dear  brother,  if 
you  will  adopt  this  manner  of  dealing  with  your  Lord 
and  with  yourself,  you  will  settle  for  once  and  forever 
that  God  is,  and  that  He  is  the  rewarder  of  them  that 
diligently  seek  Him. 

4.  The  real  reasonjvhy  you  have  been  unable  to 
assure  yourself  that  you  are  in  Christ,  is,  that  you 
have  been  wiilifig  to  be  elsewhere.  You  have  never 
seized  the  fight  to  say, 

"  I'm  a  poor  sinner  and  nothing  at  all, 
But  Jesus  Christ  is  my  all  in  all.''^ 

You  have  not  been  willing  to  be  nothing  at  all. 
You  have  had  your  pride  to  save,  your  self-love,  your 
love  of  ease,  love  of  money,  of  man's  esteem,  or  what 
not ;  — you  know  what.     And  you  know  Jesus  says, 


AM    I    A    CHRISTIAN  ?  22/ 

"Whosoever  he  be  of  you  that  forsaketh  not  all  that 
he  hath,  he  cannot  be  my  disciple  ;  "  and  much  more 
can  he  not  have  the  joy  of  knowing  that  he  is  my 
disciple. 

5.  The  reason  you  do  not  know  whether  you  are 
in  Christ  is,  that  you  are  not  prompt  and  thorough  in 
repentance  and  in  confessing  to  Him  your  sins.  You 
are  ready  to  assure  me  that  there  I  am  mistaken  ;  sin 
is  such  a  burden  to  you,  you  are  always  confessing 
it ;  owning  in  every  prayer  that  you  are  a  miserable 
sinner,  erring  and  straying  like  a  lost  sheep,  and  with 
no  health  in  you  ;  you  set  apart  monthly  seasons  for 
self-examination  and  for  humiliation,  and  bow  your 
head  like  a  bulrush.  Yes,  my  brother,  I  know  all 
about  that.  For  aught  I  know,  that  may  answer 
some  occasions,  but  it  will  not  answer  j^/zr  occasions. 
Vital  union  to  Christ  has  the  same  vitality  in  it  that 
the  most  intense  and  tender  human  friendship  has. 
Are  you  always  regaling  your  dearest  friend  with 
wholesale  complaints  of  your  unworthiness  ?  If  a 
breath  of  mist  even  l)egins  to  rise  between  you  and 
your  dearest  friend  do  you  indulge  in  figures  of  lost 
sheep  and  filthy  rags  ?  Do  you  not  rather  instantly 
ask,  "  Beloved,  what  is  it  ?  Have  I  given  you  pain  1  " 
Does  not  your  quickened  spirit  instantly  scent  out 
your  failure  in  faithfulness  at  any  point .''  And  are 
not  the  confession  and  the  reparation  instantaneous  ! 

6.  The  real  reason  why  you  do  not  know  yourself 
vitally  one  with  Christ  is,  you  do  not  believe  in  the 
forgiveness  of  sins  —  of  your  sins  ;  and  this  notwith- 


228  THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

Standing  He  has  said,  "  If  we  confess  our  sins,  He  is 
fahhful  and  just  to  forgive  us  our  sins,  and  to  cleanse 
us  from  all  unrighteousness."  You  do  not  believe 
that  the  "  blood  of  Jesus  Christ  cleanseth  from  all 
sin."  You  have  no  doubt  that  it  cleanses  from  sin 
in  general ;  but  you  consider  that  there  is  a  peculi- 
arity in  your  sin  that  not  even  the  blood  of  Jesus  can 
or  does  cleanse.  In  so  doing  you  imagine  that  you 
are  cherishing  a  becoming  modesty;  whereas  your 
modesty  is  merely  unbelief,  and  you  are  frustrating 
the  grace  of  God.  That  favor  to  the  undeserving 
which  He  is  so  willing  and  eager  to  bestow  you  will 
not  permit  Him  to  bestow.  And  the  reason  why  you 
will  not  accept  His  proffered  forgiveness  of  your 
sins,  is  that  on  which  Naaman  acted  when  Elijah  was 
ready  to  remove  his  leprosy ;  "  I  thought  he  would 
do  it  in  my  way ;  after  the  pattern  in  my  mind ;  as 
he  did  with  some  one  of  whom  I  have  read  or  heard." 
You  propose  to  wait  for  deeper  or  different  impres- 
sions ;  for  some  new  revelation  or  manifestation. 

My  dear  brother,  in  this  you  are  wrong,  all  wrong. 
Not  content  with  God's  method  of  justification  and 
of  sanctification,  you  go  about  seeking  some  way 
more  in  accordance  with  your  ideal.  In  doing  this 
you  postpone  indefinitely  your  own  happiness,  and, 
which  is  worse,  you  grieve  the  Spirit  of  God,  that  in- 
finitely tender  and  gracious  Friend  and  Comforter 
who  dwells  with  you  and  in  you,  for  the  very  pur- 
pose of  guiding  you  into  all  truth  and  into  perfect 
peace. 


AM    I    A    CHRISTIAN  ?  229 

You  have  but  one  thing  to  do  :  BeUeve  !  BeUeve 
His  precious  assurance  ;  "  If  we  confess  our  sins  He 
is  faithful  and  just  to  forgive  us  our  sins  and  to 
cleanse  us  from  all  unrighteousness."  That  means 
yoic  ;  that  means  now.  And  it  is  always  now.  Pro- 
crastination is  not  only  the  thief  of  time,  it  is  the 
thief  of  peace  also.  Believe  in  the  very  instant  of 
your  confession ;  believe  in  the  fulness  of  His  for- 
giveness. Accept  that  forgiveness  on  the  instant. 
In  the  same  instant  render  grateful  thanks ;  and  go 
on  your  way  rejoicing,  and  renewing  the  total  con- 
secration of  yourself,  and  all  you  have,  and  are,  and 
ever  can  become,  to  Him  who  loved  you,  died  for 
you,  and  washed  you  in  His  blood. 


XXVI. 

DESPISING   OUR   PRIVILEGE. 

YES,  that  is  just  what  we  do ;  we  despise  our 
highest  privilege.  Is  there  a  greater  privilege 
than  that  of  realizing  habitually  the  presence  and 
tender  love  of  Jesus  ?  a  love  incomparably  greater 
than  that  of  our  most  intimate  friend. 

"  No,"  you  will  answer,  "  certainly  not ;  but  to 
charge  us  with  despising  this  privilege !  —  what  is 
that  but  one  more  instance  of  the  reckless  use  of 
language  which  is  so  common  in  our  day  ?  " 

Hold  a  moment,  dear  friend,  and  I  think  I  shall 
convince  you  that  this  is  not  one  of  the  unconsidered 
expressions  which  exceed  all  warrant.  When  the 
invitations  to  the  supper  of  the  king  were  issued,  and 
the  invited  guests  began  with  one  consent  to  make 
excuse  —  "I  have  bought  a  piece  of  land,  or  five 
yoke  of  oxen  ;  I  have  married  a  wife,  and  therefore 
I  cannot  come" — did  they  not  in  fact  despise  the 
invitation  ?  Do  not  paltry  excuses  for  not  accepting 
a  proffered  boon  mark  a  low  estimate  of  that  boon  ? 
Our  Lord  says,  "  If  a  man  love  me  he  will  keep  my 


DESPISING    OUR    PRIVILEGE.  23 1 

words,  and  my  Father  will  love  him,  and  we  will 
come  unto  him  and  make  our  abode  with  him." 
Here  is  surely  a  glorious  offer,  on  most  available 
terms.  Not  to  catch  at  it  eagerl}-,  and  with  grati- 
tude, is  to  hold  it  in  small  esteem.  To  make  a  few 
and  intermittent  endeavors  for  this  incomparable 
possession  and  then  to  give  it  up  is  to  despise  it. 

The  habitual  realization  of  Jesus  as  his  present, 
personal,  loving  Friend  is  the  highest  privilege  con- 
ferred on  man.  This  privilege  is  offered  to  me,  to 
you,  to  each  and  to  every  disciple;  it  is  freely  of- 
fered ;  it  is  earnestly  pressed  upon  our  acceptance. 
Not  to  accept  it  is  to  despise  it. 

Do  you  say  "  Nay,  not  so :  for  though  I  cannot 
deny  that  in  words  it  is  in  some  sense  offered,  yet 
practically  it  is  as  though  it  were  not,  for  I  cannot 
lay  hold  upon  Him  ;  I  cannot  make  Him  real  ?  " 

Then,  dear  friend,  you  fail  either  because  you  have 
not  so  desired  this  friendship  with  Jesus  as  promptly 
and  always  to  subordinate  all  other  friendships  to 
this ;  or  because  you  have  not  given  heed  to  the 
declaration,  "  He  that  cometh  to  God  must  believe 
that  He  is,  and  that  He  is  the  re  warder  of  them  that 
diligently  seek  Him."  To  tolerate  a  shadow  of  a 
doubt  that  God  is,  is  to  throw  away  all  satisfying 
friendship  with  Him.  Do  you  ask,  "  How  can  I  be 
blamed  when,  do  the  best  I  can,  there  still  remains 
this  discouraging  feeling ;  perhaps  He  is  here,  per- 
haps hot;  perhaps  He  is  listening  to  me,  perhaps 
He  does  n't  care  to  ? " 


232  THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

Take  His  own  answer  to  your  question :  "  Then 
shall  ye  know,  if  ye  follow  on  to  know  the  Lord." 
You  perhaps  remember  that  in  Bunyan's  Pilgrim 
armed  men  resisted  Christian's  entrance  into  the 
house  where  he  was  to  learn  much  that  was  to  speed 
him  joyfully  on  his  M^ay.  God  tests  your  earnestness 
to  enter  into  the  closest  friendship  and  fellowship 
with  Him,  by  permitting  obstacles  to  stand  across 
your  path ;  obstacles,  mainly,  of  your  own  creating. 
Can  you  wonder  that  when  you  have  for  years  treated 
Jesus  as  though  He  were  not  near  you,  nor  interested 
in  you,  you  now  cannot  easily  gain  the  consciousness 
which  you  have  permitted  to  pass  away  from  you  ? 
But  if  you  are  in  true  and  deep  earnest  to  possess 
this  consciousness,  the  way  is  open  to  you.  Begin 
at  once.  Remember  that  there  is  measureless  power 
in  the  deter7nined  will.  Be  resolved  that  you  will 
call  upon  your  Lord  in  unwavering  confidence  in  His 
presence,  and  in  His  kind  attention  to  every  word 
you  utter.  Be  careful  to  say  to  Him  only  and  ex- 
actly what  you  think,  and  feel,  and  wish,  and  intend. 

Find  out  what  is  the  one  thing  which  hinders  your 
realizing  Jesus  as  your  ever  present,  real,  helpful 
Friend.  Then  hasten  to  put  the  hinderance  from 
you.  Cry  mightily  to  "your  Lord  for  help.  Set 
yourself  to  do  the  work  of  a  friend.  Stimulate  your 
ingenuity  to  find  out  ways  of  pleasing  and  of  honor- 
ing Him.  If  you  are  but  earnest  and  persistent  in 
so  doing,  nothing  but  a  miracle  can  possibly  prevent 
your  success. 


XXVII. 

HOW   TO   BE    SAVED. 

WHEN  any  one  asks,  "  What  must  I  do  to  be 
saved  ?  "  he  is  answered  :  "  Repent  and  be- 
lieve the  Gospel ;  "  "  Repent  and  be  baptized  in  the 
name  of  Jesus  Christ,  for  the  remission  of  sins  ; " 
"  Repent  and  be  converted  that  your  sins  may  be 
blotted  out ;  "  "  Believe  on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
and  thou  shalt  be  saved ;  "  "  Repent,  and  turn  to 
God,  and  do  works  meet  for  repentance ;  "  "  God  so 
loved  the  world,  that  he  gave  his  only  begotten  Son, 
that  whosoever  believeth  in  him  should  not  perish, 
but  have  everlasting  life ;  "  "  He  that  believeth  on 
the  Son  hath  everlasting  life ;  "  and  it  is  sometimes 
added,  "  I  dare  not  answer  you  but  in  these  very 
words  of  the  Bible." 

We  may  well  fear  to  return  any  answer  that  does 
not  accord  with  these  declarations  of  the  Bible ;  but 
it  is  a  serious  error  to  suppose  that  we  have  dis- 
charged our  duty,  and  have  done  all  we  can  do  for 
an  inquirer,  when  we  have  given  him  some  one  or 
more  of  these  Scriptural  directions.     We  might  as 

-3J 


234  THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

well  think  that  we  had  done  all  we  could  for  a  hun- 
gry child,  when  we  had  given  him  a  bag  of  meal 
or  flour.  We  know  indeed  that  every  troubled  sin- 
'ner  wants  a  Saviour,  and  a  Gospel  of  Salvation  ;  but 
we  also  know  that  he  must  taste  before  he  will  see 
that  the  Lord  is  good,  and  that  he  must  trust  before 
he  can  know  the  blessedness  of  the  man  that  trusteth 
in  Him  ;  and  it  is  our  business  to  tempt  his  taste, 
and  to  encourage  his  trust,  by  offering  the  invitations 
of  the  Gospel  in  winning  words,  seasoned  with  abun- 
dant illustrations  of  the  love  and  tenderness  of  Christ. 
These  are  abundantly  furnished  in  the  Bible,  and  so 
varied  as  to  fit  the  necessities  of  a  great  variety  of 
cases.  It  is  for  us  to  find  out  what  are  the  particular 
necessities  of  the  individual  who  needs  our  help,  and 
this  we  may  do  by  encouraging  the  inquirer  to  state 
his  own  case. 

Thus  one  will  say,  "  I  know  it  is  necessary  to  be- 
come a  Christian  ;  I  am  not  content  to  continue  as  I 
now  am ;  I  know  that  I  am  a  sinner  ;  but  I  can't 
say  that  I  have  any  deep  conviction  of  this,  or  that  I 
feel  very  much  about  it.     What  can  you  say  to  me  ?  " 

I  would  say,  that,  like  the  prodigal  son,  you  have 
wandered  very  far  away  from  your  father's  house. 
You  may  not  have  spent  all,  or  any,  of  your  substance 
in  riotous  living ;  yet,  have  you  none  the  less  at- 
tempted to  satisfy  the  hunger  of  a  famishing  soul 
with  husks.  For  that  you  know  it  is  necessary  to 
become  a  Christian,  is  proof  that  your  soul  has  been 
starved.     You  already   labor  and   are   heavy  laden. 


HOW   TO    BE    SAVED.  235 

and  your  labor  will  become  more  laborious,  and  your 
burden  more  heavy,  until  you  come  to  Christ.  It 
may,  or  may  not  be,  that  you  will  have  a  deeper  con- 
viction of  your  sinfulness  before  you  give  yourself  up 
to  Christ ;  that  may  depend  upon  circumstances  not 
within  your  control.  But  it  is  very  proper  that  you 
shall  call  to  mind  God's  unnumbered  kindnesses  to 
you ;  and  that  you  should  inquire  what  return  you 
have  made  to  Him ;  that  you  should  consider  how 
you  have  been  treating  him,  while  his  mercies  have 
been  inviting  you  to  repentance." 

But  you  say,  I  don't  know  what  it  is  to  come  to 
Christ,  or  how  to  get  to  him.  I  am  sure  I  should  be 
glad  to  do  so,  if  I  did  or  could. 

Are  you  sure  of  this  ?  That  you  would  be  glad  to 
escape  unhappiness,  and  to  be  free  from  the  fear  of 
punishment,  I  can  easily  believe;  but  coming  to 
Christ  is  much  more  than  this.  Every  unconverted 
man  has  a  will  of  his  own  ;  a  will  to  be  and  to  do 
many  things  contrary  to  the  will  of  Christ.  In  com- 
ing to  Christ,  the  very  first  step  is  to  subordinate  our 
self-will  to  the  will  of  Christ ;  one  must  be  willing  to 
sit  at  the  feet  of  Jesus  and  be  taught  by  him  in  all 
things,  and  immediately  on  being  taught  the  will  of 
Christ,  he  must  adopt  that  will  as  the  rule  of  his  life. 
If  you  are  prepared  to  do  thls^  then  you  are  prepared 
to  come  to  Christ ;  you  are  prepared  to  look  on 
Christ  without  prejudice,  which  no  man  can  do  till  he 
is  ready  to  subordinate  his  own  will  to  Christ's  will. 
When  you  are  ready  to  do  this,  it  is  not  difficult  to 


236  THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

come  to  Christ,  which  is,  in  fact,  to  love  Christ. 
When  once  you  surrender  your  will  to  Christ,  you 
need  nothing  but  knowledge.  It  is  true  that  no  man 
can  come  to  Christ  except  the  Father  draw  him  ;  but 
when  a  man  is  ready  to  bow  his  will  to  the  will  of 
Christ,  it  is  because  the  Father  has  already  sent  his 
Holy  Spirit  to  draw  him.  By  the  light  of  this  truth 
you  may  see  where  you  are,  and  what  you  have  to 
do ;  so,  if  you  are  ready,  say  and  do  this  :  — 

"Just  as  I  am,  without  one  plea, 
But  that  Thy  blood  was  shed  for  me, 
And  that  thou  bid'st  me  come  to  thee, 
O  Lamb  of  God,  I  come. 


XXVIII. 


THE   INDWELLING   COMFORTER. 


THE  unbelief  of  avowed  Christians  in  the  in- 
dwelling of  the  Holy  Ghost  is  one  of  the 
greatest  evils  of  our  day.  What  would  be  the 
answer,  if  we  should  ask  of  a  score  of  the  members 
of  any  one  or  more  of  our  churches,  "  Have  you 
received  the  Holy  Ghost  ?  "  And  what  if  it  should 
be  further  asked,  "  Have  you  the  Holy  Ghost  dwell- 
ing in  you  ?  "  Some  would  answer,  "  It  would  not 
be  modest  in  me  to  say  it,  even  if  I  thought  so."  Ah, 
is  modesty  inconsistent  with  truth  ?  Is  it  immodest 
for  you  to  profess  supreme  love  for  Christ  ?  Immod- 
est to  admit  that  you  have  received  the  seal  of  his 
responsive  love  ?  Surely,  not  if  you  have  it ;  for 
has  He  not  commanded  you  to  let  your  light  so  shine 
before  men,  that  they  may  see  your  good  works,  and 
glorify  your  Pather  in  heaven  ?  Can  you  in  any  way 
more  effectively  witness  a  good  confession  than  by 
the  fearless  avowal  that  the  Holy  One  dwells  in  you, 
and  that  you  are  in  all  things  governed  by  his  coun- 
sel ?  and  by  a  life  consistent  with  this  avowal  ? 

237 


238  THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

Some  would  plead  their  fear  of  self-righteousness 
as  a  bar  to  an  ingenuous  answer ;  some  would  actu- 
ally make  a  righteousness  of  refusing  "  to  witness  a 
good  confession  ;  "  they  would  persuade  themselves, 
and  others,  that  they  are  too  good,  too  virtuous,  too 
reverent  of  God,  even  to  pretend  that  they  entertain 
that  Heavenly  Visitant  from  day  to  day,  from  hour 
to  hour.  The  truth  is,  the  consciousness  of  the  in- 
dwelling Spirit  depends  upon  the  ever-conscious  pre- 
ference of  God's  will  to  our  own.  As  in  the  early  days 
of  the  Church,  "  no  man  could  (or  would)  say  that 
Jesus  was  the  Christ,  except  by  the  spirit  of  the  Lord," 
so  now  no  man  can  truly  and  ever  say,  "  Not  my  will, 
but  thine  be  done,"  except  by  the  spirit  of  the  Lord. 
Of  course,  those  of  the  disciples  who  are  daily  doing 
their  own  work,  rather  than  the  Lord's,  cannot  have 
the  conscious  indwelling  and  guidance  of  the  Holy 
Ghost.  There  is  such  a  thing  as  being  filled  with 
faith  and  with  the  Holy  Ghost  from  the  beginning  of 
the  religious  life  and  thenceforth.  The  command  to 
be  led  by  the  Spirit,  to  live  in  the  Spirit,  to  walk  in 
the  Spirit,  is  in  full  force  ;  and  enforced  by  the  assur- 
ance, "He  dwelleth  with  you,  and  shall  be  in  you." 
Woe  to  the  man  who  refuses  to  believe,  or  to  receive 
the  boon  ;  good  were  it  for  that  man  that  he  had 
never  heard  the  gracious  offer,  rather  than  that  he 
should  set  no  value  upon  this  purchase  of  the 
Saviour's  blood. 

Many  affect  to  deplore  the  withdrawal  of  the 
Holy  Spirit ;  some  actually  deceive  themselves  into 


THE    INDWELLING    COMFORTER.  239 

believing  that  lie  does,  at  times,  withdraw  from  very 
good  Christians,  and  leave  them,  as  our  Saviour  said 
he  would  not  leave  them,  orphaned.  Such  are  little 
alarmed  when  the  pall  of  insensibility  settles  down 
upon  their  souls ;  they  content  themselves  with 
thinking  that  such  is  the  way  of  the  Spirit,  and  with 
feeble  wishes  that  he  may  some  day  come  again  to 
his  temple.  How  different  is  this  from  the  teaching 
of  inspiration  :  "  As  many  as  are  led  by  the  Spirit  of 
God,  they  are  the  sons  of  God ;  "  "  If  any  man  have 
not  the  Spirit  of  Christ  he  is  none  of  his ;  "  "  Know 
ye  not  your  own  selves  how  that  Jesus  Christ  is  in 
you,  except  ye  be  reprobates  ?  " 

Heedless  of  Christ's  explicit  promise,  John  xiv  : 
16-18  :  "I  will  pray  the  Father,  and  he  shall  give 
you  another  Comforter.  ...  I  will  not  leave  you 
comfortless ;  I  will  come  to  you  ;  "  multitudes  have 
forsaken  the  obvious  meaning  of  the  promise  and 
gone  about  to  seek  a  solace  and  a  substitute  for  what 
is  here  promised  to  simple  faith  in  a  supposed  second 
physical  coming  of  Christ.  They  cannot  live  by  faith 
on  the  Son  of  God,  they  must  have  sight.  They 
seem  to  have  forgotten  that  St.  Paul  himself  declared, 
"  Yea,  though  we  have  known  Christ  after  the  flesh, 
yet  now  henceforth  know  we  him  no  more."  And 
this  for  the  obvious  reason  that  we  know  him  through 
the  indwelling  Spirit.  He  that  has  thus  received  the 
promise  of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son,  needs  no  such 
stimulus  to  his  faith  as  is  alleged  to  be  found  in  the 


240  THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

expectation  of  another  personal  or  physical  coming 
of  Christ  in  1868,  or  in  1886. 

I  WOULD  give  all  I  have  in  the  world  to  know  that 
I  am  certainly  a  child  of  God." 

Our  Heavenly  Father  will  not  sell  the  assurance 
you  desire  at  that  or  at  any  other  price  ;  but  he  will 
make  you  a  free  gift  of  it,  simply  upon  3^our  com- 
plying with  certain  conditions  which  are  indispen- 
sable. 

"  What  are  those  conditions  ?  " 

The  first  is  that  you  shall  be  a  child.  It  is  plain 
that  you  cannot  certainly  know  yourself  to  be  a  child 
until  you  are  a  child. 

"  I  hope  I  am  that  now." 

A  well-founded  hope  is  an  excellent  possession ; 
but  I  understood  you  to  wish  for  more ;  you  wished 
to  know  absolutely.  This  implies,  does  it  not,  that 
you  are  not  entirely  satisfied  with  your  hope  ? 

"  That  is  true  ;  I  do  wish  to  convert  hope  into 
certainty." 

This  can  be  done  only  by  complying  with  the  en- 
treaty of  the  Apostle  Paul :  "  I  beseech  you,  there- 
fore, brethren,  by  the  mercies  of  God,  that  ye  present 
your  bodies  a  living  sacrifice,  holy,  acceptable,  unto 
God  ;  which  is  your  reasonable  service.  And  be  not 
conformed  to  this  world,  but  be  ye  transformed  by 
the  renewing  of  your  mind."  For  one  who  covets 
conformity  to  the  worldly  ways  and  worldly  princi- 
ples of  those  about  him  ;  for  one  who  is  unprepared 


THE    I x\ DWELLING    COMFORTER.  24 1 

to  give  himself  wholly  and  entirely  away  to  Christ,  it 
is  quite  useless  to  sigh  for  the  spirit  of  adoption  ;  to 
long  for  the  certainty  of  being  a  child  of  God.  That 
certainly  arises  from-  the  indwelling  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,  the  Comforter.  He  will  not  dwell  with  idols ; 
he  will  not  make  his  abode  in  a  heart  that  is  not 
wholly  and  heartily  surrendered  to  him.  But  into 
every  heart  that  is  thus  wholly  and  heartily  offered 
to  him  —  that  is  made  ready  for  him,  he  will  come, 
and  come  at  once.  He  will  feed  the  soul  that 
hungers  and  thirsts  after  righteousness  ;  for  he  says 
such  are  blessed,  and  that  they  shall  be  filled. 


XXIX. 


RECEIVING   CHRIST. 


HOW  is  it  with  you  now,  M.  ;  have  you  made 
any  progress  Christ-w^ard  since  I  saw  you  ?  " 

"  I  can't  say  that  I  have.  It 's  just  about  the 
same ;  and  I  don't  see  what  I  am  to  do  to  make  it 
different.  I  have  done  everything  I  know  how  to 
do ;  and  if  I  had  my  life  to  hve  over  again,  I  don't 
see  how  I  could  do  differently." 

"Do  you  pray  daily,  and  study  the  Bible  ?" 

"  Yes ;  but  I  don't  see  that  it  does  any  good." 

"  When  you  pray,  do  j^ou  realize  Christ's  presence, 
and  his  interest  in  you  ? " 

"  No ;  I  can't  say  I  do.  I  don't  see  how  he  can 
feel  any  interest  in  me.  I  have  lived  a  mere  selfish 
life,  and  haven't  deserved  his  love,  and  don't  see 
how  I  can  expect  it." 

"Do  you  desire  it  ?  " 

"  Oh,  yes ;  I  should  like  very  much  to  have  it,  if 
I  could." 

"  Well,  if  that  be  really  so,  and  if  you  will  just 
tell  him  so,  and  ask  him  what  he  would  have  you  to 
242 


RECEIVING   CHRIST.  243 

do  to  win  it,  that  will  be  real  prayer,  and  one  that  he 
will  be  likely  to  answer." 

"  But  it  don't  seem  to  me  as  if  it  would  accom- 
plish anything,  or  make  any  change  in  my  future  life. 
I  can't  feel  sure  that  I  shall  do  any  better  in  the 
future." 

"  One  thing  at  a  time,  my  dear  friend  ;  if  you 
desire  God's  love  —  really  desire  it  —  you  can  have 
it,  if  it  be  the  one  absorbing  desire  of  your  heart." 

"  But  it  don't  seem  so  to  me.  It  don't  seem  to  me 
that  he  can  find  anything  in  me  to  love." 

"You  have  but  too  much  reason  to  say  it;  but, 
fortunately,  what  cannot  be  found  in  you  is  found  in 
Christ ;  he  has  bought  you  with  his  blood ;  and  now 
offers  to  dwell  with  you  and  in  you.  If  you  receive 
Jesus,  all  will  go  well  with  you  ;  for  it  is  written,  '  As 
many  as  received  him,  to  them  gave  he  power  to 
become  the  sons  of  God.'  You  want  power  to  be- 
come a  child ;  receive  Christ,  and  he  will  give  you 
the  powder." 

"  But  if  I  tell  him  that  I  do  receive  him,  I  shan't 
feel  any  differently ;  I  shan't  act  any  differently." 

"  In  short,  you  don't  believe  that  there  is  any  effi- 
cacy in  obedience  ;  that  God  values  it,  or  will  rew^ard 
it ;  and  all  your  unbelief  has  no  better  ground  than 
that  it  don't  seem  to  you  that  it  w^ould  do  any  good. 
What  right  have  you  thus  to  reject  the  plain  testi- 
mony of  God  ?  You  have  never  put  him  to  the 
proof.  You  have  never  received  Christ,  though  he 
has  long  knocked  for  admittance.     You  have  never 


244  '^^^E    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

entrusted  the  keeping  of  yourself  to  him.  Thou- 
sands of  times  his  gentle  and  winning  entreaty, 
*  Come  unto  me,'  has  been  repeated  in  your  hearing, 
but  you  have  never  come.  You  reject  all  evidence 
of  the  reality  and  earnestness  of  the  invitation." 

"Well,  I  've  tried,  and  I  can't  change  my  heart.  I 
know  I  have  got  to  feel,  and  to  do,  differently ;  but 
somehow  I  can't  get  hold  of  it." 

"  Do  you  remember  the  story  of  the  man  who  had 
a  withered  hand  ?  Christ  said  to  him,  '  Stretch  forth 
thine  hand.'  Now,  this  man's  arm,  as  I  understand 
the  narrative,  was  completely  withered.  He  might, 
I  suppose,  have  said  with  entire  truth,  '  Lord,  I 
cannot  stretch  forth  mine  hand ;  it  is  an  utter  im- 
possibility ;  I  haven't  the  power  to  do  it.'  He  had 
no  power  to  do  it ;  but  one  thing  he  could  do  ;  he 
could  put  forth  the  will  to  do  it.  He  did  that ;  that 
was  obedience ;  and  Christ  gave  the  power  ;  and  he 
was  healed.  I  know  that  the  faith  in  Christ,  wdiich 
I  wish  you  to  exercise,  and  without  which  it  is  impos- 
sible to  please  God,  is  the  gift  of  God;  but  he  gives 
it  to  those  who  exercise  the  will  to  obey.  The  Lord 
invites  you  to  prove  him.     Do  it." 


XXX. 


LAY   WORK   A   BOUNDEN    DUTY. 


SOME  things  are  plain ;  this  for  one  ;  if  we  pray 
.  honestly,  "Thy  kingdom  come,"  we  ought  studi- 
ously to  inquire  :  "  What  can  /  do  in  furtherance  of 
my  prayer  ? " 

Well,  I  can  examine  some  of  the  hinderances  to 
the  grace  of  God.  He  desires  the  salvation  of  men. 
In  order  to  their  salvation,  He  would  have  them  en- 
lightened, instructed  as  to  his  kind  desires  and  in- 
tentions in  their  behalf,  and  invited  to  accept  eternal 
life. 

One  of  the  most  serious  hinderances  is  the  supposi- 
tion that  this  work  devolves  chiefly,  ay,  almost  ex- 
clusively on  ministers.  Nothing  can  be  more  untrue. 
Ministers  are  captains  of  the  Lord's  hosts.  Leaders, 
guides,  instructors,  they  may  and  ought  to  be  ;  but 
the  hosts  of  the  adversary  are  to  be  encountered  man 
by  man ;  and  God  has  given  to  the  rank  and  file  the 
force  which  is  to  do  the  work,  as  truly  as  to  their 
leaders.  It  is  quite  true  that  every  man  is  not  a 
Moody ;  but  it  is  just  as  true,  that  to  ever}^  man  has 

245 


246  THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

been  entrusted  some  one  or  more  talents  to  be  used 
for  the  Master ;  and  no  man  knows  how  much  has 
been  entrusted  to  him,  until  he  has  most  energetically 
and  persistently  endeavored  to  employ  all  he  can 
find  to  use.  Do  you  think  Moody  knew  what  the 
Lord  had  given  him  when  he  first  attempted  a  few 
words  in  the  prayer-meeting,  and  was  advised  by  a 
pastor  of  large  experience  to  refrain  from  such  en- 
deavors ?  It  was  an  essential  part  of  the  very  disci- 
pline that  developed  him,  to  push  on  in  the  face  of 
this  opposing  opinion.  He  chose  not  to  wait  for 
Saul's  armor,  but  to  use  smooth  or  rough  stones 
from  the  brook  in  a  less  public  place,  and  where 
such  ordnance  as  he  had,  might  and  did  do  execu- 
tion. 

It  is  an  utter  and  dire  mistake  to  suppose  that  the 
salvation  of  men  through  "  preaching  the  Word," 
means  only  by  the  pronouncing  of  well-labored  ser- 
mons by  highly  educated  and  ordained  ministers. 
We  may  well  be  instructed  by  those  who  are  arrayed 
against  us.  The  Romish  system  provides  for  the 
discovery  and  enlistment  of  capability  of  every  kind, 
and  in  every  degree.  It  taxes  every  income  ;  it  uses 
its  entire  resources;  it  maintains  an  unrelaxing  hold 
upon  the  conscience  of  its  subjects.  We  have  not  as 
yet  asserted  the  claim  of  our  Sovereign  head  upon 
each  member  of  His  Church  for  service ;  at  all  events 
have  not  made  it  to  be  felt.  Any  formal  assent  to 
this  claim  is  commonly  given  with  a  mental  reserva- 
tion, and  with  a  private  interpretation  ;  as  for  ex- 


LAY  WORK  A  BOUNDEN  DUTY.      24/ 

ample  :  I  am  not  to  be  expected  personally  to  dissem- 
inate the  Gospel.  I  can't  speak  to  men,  teach  or  give 
them  tracts  or  books.  My  business  is  to  earn  money. 
I  will  help  support  those  who  do  this  work. 

The  Master  says  :  "  Freely  ye  have  received ; 
freely  give."  The  servant  replies :  "  I  pray  thee 
have  me  excused."  And  the  leaders  of  the  host  too 
often  unwisely  think  such  may  be  excused  if  they 
will  give  ten  or  more  per  cent  of  their  accumulations 
to  Church  charities.  The  Master  demands  total  con- 
secration of  himself  and  of  all  he  is  and  has ;  the 
servant  proposes  a  compromise  of  ten  per  cent, — 
not  even  then  of  what  he  is,  but  of  the  moftey  he  is 
permitted  to  acquire.  Is  this  to  be  allowed  ?  Never ! 
It  is  worse  than  compounding  felony.  The  unalter- 
able demand  remains  in  unabated  force.  "  Thou 
shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart,  soul, 
mind,  and  strength."  Not  a  single  man  in  all  the 
Lord's  host  is  at  liberty  to  engage  in  any  business 
which  precludes  his  living,  and  preaching  the  Gospel 
every  day.  No  Christian  may  engage  in  any  busi- 
ness transaction  which  will  arrest  the  flow  of  Chris- 
tian love  —  love  for  a  single  soul,  or  hinder  his  free 
utterance  of  his  Master's  claim  upon  that  soul.  By 
this  sure  standard  every  business  must  be  tried.  To 
engage  in  any  business  which  forbids  or  hinders  this 
care  for  souls,  is  to  rob  God.  Really  consecrated 
souls  may  not  contend  with  worldly  men  for  wealth 
and  business  reputation. 


XXXI. 

WHAT   CHRIST  ASKS   OF   LAYMEN. 

IT  is  pretty  generally  admitted,  that  the  layman  is 
as  strongly  bound  to  total  consecration  as  the 
minister.  In  the  face  of  the  two  tables  of  the  law, 
"Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy 
heart,  and  thy  neighbor  as  thyself,"  who  would  dare 
take  any  other  position  ?  Every  layman,  then,  is 
bouud  freely  to  receive  and  freely  to  give  the  Gospel 
of  Christ.  He  is  an  enlisted  soldier.  As  such  he 
may  not  entangle  himself  in  any  disqualifying  affairs. 
He  must  separate  himself  to  the  service  of  Christ. 
It  is  his  supreme  honor  and  privilege  that  he  may 
do  so. 

"But,"  asks  some  one,  "do  you  mean  to  deny 
that  he  may  properly  engage  in  any  secular  business 
or  profession  ?  " 

He  may  engage  in  any  business  or  profession  that 
does  not  divert  or  subtract  from  the  largest,  purest, 
most  effective  service  for  Christ  and  His  church; 
any  business  compatible  with  his  living  in  Christ,  as 
a  branch  in  the  vine ;  and  upon  Christ  as  one  who 
248 


WHAT    CHRIST    ASKS    OF    LAYMEN.  249 

eats  His  flesh,  and  drinks  His  blood ;  to  whom 
Christ  is  as  manna  and  as  bread ;  who  feeds  upon 
Christ  by  unintermittent  faith,  and  is  daily  and  hourly 
growing  into  His  image.  No  business  or  profession 
incompatible  with  this  is  open  to  any  brother  in 
Christ. 

"It  strikes  me  you  are  putting  this  pretty  strong; 
he  may  engage  in  nothing,  you  say,  that  would  sub- 
tract from  the  largest,  purest,  most  effective  service 
for  Christ.  Why,  you  can't  mean  that  a  business 
man  must  be  praying  and  preaching  all  the  time  ? " 

He  must  be  always  in  Christ ;  on  Christ's  own 
testimony,  "  If  a  man  abide  not  in  me,  he  is  cast 
forth  as  a  branch,  and  is  withered."  And,  again, 
"  Whosoever  he  be  of  you  that  forsaketh  not  all  that 
he  hath,  he  cannot  be  my  disciple."  He  must  "pray 
without  ceasing,  and  in  everything  give  thanks." 
Whether  he  eat  or  drink,  or  whatsoever  he  does,  he 
must  "do  all  to  the  glory  of  God."  These  are  the 
business  rules  divinely  established,  and  never  re- 
scinded. He  must  be  always  a  witness  for  Christ; 
his  life  must  be  always  a  true  rendering,  though 
his  tongue  be  not  always  quoting  the  Gospel  of 
Christ. 

"  If  you  are  familiar  with  business,  you  must  know 
that  in  these  days  any  business  worth  pursuing  is 
very  absorbing.  It  is  as  much  as  any  man's  reputa- 
tion is  worth,  to  be  known  to  be  interested  in  any- 
thing outside  of  business.  Are  you  prepared  to  risk 
the  consequences  of  wdiat  you  recommend  ?  " 


250  THE   CHRISTIAN   MINISTRY. 

Do  you  think  it  unsafe  to  "  seek  first  the  kingdom 
of  God  and  His  righteousness  ?  " 

"  I  think  that  an  intelhgent  man  undertaking  any 
business  in  our  times,  will  find  it  wise,  and  absolutely 
necessary  to  give  that  business  his  undivided  atten- 
tion. You  are  familiar  with  the  saying,  'A  man  who 
attempts  several  instruments  will  find  himself  beaten 
by  him  who  keeps  to  one.'  Our  successful  business 
men  are  men  of  no  ordinary  powers ;  every  faculty 
is  strung  to  the  highest  tension ;  and  they  exhaust 
their  trained  powers  to  the  limit  of  endurance,  six 
days  in  every  week.  Of  course  you  will  agree  with 
me  that  the  Christian  lawyer,  doctor,  or  merchant  is 
found,  to  the  extent  of  his  capacities,  to  be  the  ablest 
lawyer,  doctor,  or  merchant  in  his  place.  He  ought 
to  be  that,  if  he  is  to  be  an  example  to  others." 

It  is  written,  "  Be  perfect,  as  your  Father  in  heaven 
is  perfect."  Can  it  be  shown,  do  you  think,  that  the 
Christian  most  nearly  perfect,  could  we  identify  him, 
would  necessarily  be  found  "  the  ablest  merchant  ? " 

"  Well,  each  profession  has  its  own  canons,  its 
qualifications  and  its  tests.  I  suppose  some  charac- 
teristics which  recommend  a  man  as  a  Christian, 
would  be  thought  not  quite  up  to  the  mark  in  a  man 
of  business." 

In  such  cases,  may  I  ask,  which  standard  is  enti- 
tled to  take  the  precedence  .? 

"  No  doubt  each  is  good  in  its  place ;  but  you 
can't  mix  up  business  and  religion." 

You  are  quite  right,  my  friend.     You  mean  that 


WHAT    CHRIST    ASKS    OF    LAYMEN.  25 1 

the  attempts  now  made  to  harmonize  present  and 
final  salvation  with  most  kinds  of  business,  or  with 
any  business  as  most  generally  conducted,  are  and 
must  needs  be  abortive.  The  gate  is  as  strait,  and 
the  way  as  narrow,  for  the  child  of  God  to-day,  as  at 
any  former  time.  It  must  be  frankly  and  fearlessly 
avowed,  that  the  occupations  which  to-day  permit  the 
man  of  average  ability  to  seek  first  the  kingdom  of 
God  and  His  righteousness,  and  at  the  same  time 
acquire  an  ample  livelihood,  are  far  from  numerous. 
And  as  for  wealthy  no  child  of  God  can  reasonably 
reckon  the  acquisition  of  that^  his  call  from  God. 
They  "who  will  be  rich,"  go  where  no  child  of  God 
can  follow. 

"  Do  you  mean  to  assert  that  wealth  must  hence- 
forth be  confined  to  the  wicked  ? " 

I  mean  to  assert  that  the  majority  of  our  "  church 
members  in  good  and  regular  standing,"  have  been 
betrayed  into  modes  of  life  inharmonious  with  the 
aspirations  for  holy  living  which  we  may  hope  come 
to  them  in  their  more  thoughtful  moments. 

Little  by  little,  and  doubtless  all  unconsciously, 
step  by  step,  they  have  been  tempted  to  forget  that 
gain  is  not  godliness,  and  that  a  goodly  estate  is  no 
satisfactory  substitute  for  the  smile  of  their  Lord. 
Even  our  good  brethren  in  the  ministry  have  some- 
times been  tempted  to  overestimate  the  desirableness 
of  well-to-do  church  members.  No,  dear  brethren  ! 
However  necessary  money  may  be  for  Christian 
purposes,  the  one  want  of  our  times  is,  men  filled 


252  THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

with  faith  and  the  Holy  Ghost ;  men  who  dare  en- 
treat that  Christ  may  be  formed  in  them  at  any  cost; 
men  who  dare  venture  wholly  on  the  command  and 
promise,  "  Seek  first  the  kingdom  of  God  and  His 
righteousness,  and  all  these  things  shall  be  added 
unto  you."  It  is  for  the  lack  of  this  Christian  brav- 
ery, in  part  at  least,  that  the  present  business  depres- 
sion has  come  upon  us.  No  doubt  much  might  be 
truly  affirmed  of  over-production,  over-trading,  and 
lavish  expenditure,  as  procuring  causes :  and  3^et 
more  might  be  truly  said,  of  the  various  influence  of 
the  greed  of  gold  ;  but  over  and  above  all  this  let  us 
think  of  the  law  of  Jesus,  restraining  and  constrain- 
ing us  to  ask  to  be  "  filled  with  the  knowledge  of 
His  will  in  all  wisdom  and  spiritual  understanding, 
that  we  may  walk  worthy  of  our  Lord  unto  all  pleas- 
ing, being  fruitful  in  every  good  work,  and  filled  with 
the  knowledge  of  God."  When  this  becomes  our 
controlling  desire  and  prayer  the  sons  of  God  will 
not  lack  any  good  thing.  If  they  can  find  no  way  to 
earn  the  money  the  church  of  Christ  is  supposed  to 
need,  our  God  will  supply  all  the  need  from  His 
inexhaustible  stores. 


XXXII. 


A   PROTEST   AGAINST  A   BUGBEAR. 


I 


T  is  written,  "  We  are  not  ignorant  of  Satan's  de- 
vices." A  servant  of  our  Lord  said  this,  one  who 
was  taught  of  God.  But  not  all  of  the  servants  of 
the  Lord  can  affirm  so  much.  I  propose  to  show 
that  one  of  Satan's  devices  is  so  adroitly  covered  as 
to  deceive  many  who  are  otherwise  both  well-informed 
and  abundantly  competent.  The  bugbear  with  which 
we  have  now  to  do,  expresses  itself  substantially  thus  : 
To  speak  of  your  own  personal  experiences  is  ego- 
tism ;  egotism  is  always  offensive ;  therefore,  if  you 
would  avoid  the  just  condemnation  of  God  and  man, 
you  must  very  seldom,  if  ever,  mention  a  manifesta- 
tion of  the  grace  of  God  to  men,  in  which  you  have 
had  any  participation. 

This  persuasion  cometh  not  of  Him  who  called 
you  to  glory  and  vigorous  efficiency.  An  enemy  hath 
done  this.  Behold  the  evidence.  The  man  out  of 
whom  Jesus  cast  many  devils  besought  Him  that  he, 
might  be  with  Him.  But  Jesus  sent  him  away, 
saying,  "  Return  to  thine  own  house,  and  show  how 


254  THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

great  things  God  hath  done  unto  theeT  The  men 
whom  Jesus  selected  to  preach  the  Gospel  to  every 
creature  had  neither  philosophy,  theology,  nor  science 
of  any  kind.  It  was,  therefore,  utterly  beyond  their 
power  to  present  truth  in  the  abstract.  Even  John, 
the  beloved  disciple,  was  enforced  to  say,  "  That 
which  we  have  heard,  which  we  have  seen  with  our 
eyes,  which  we  have  looked  upon,  and  our  hands 
have  handled  of  the  Word  of  life,  declare  we  unto 
you."  Peter  and  John  declared  to  the  rulers,  elders, 
scribes,  and  high  priest,  that  the  good  deed  done 
by  them  to  the  impotent  man  was  by  the  name  of 
Jesus  Christ.  Our  Lord  has  said,  "  Ye  are  my  wit- 
nesses." It  is  required  of  witnesses  to  tell  what  they 
themselves  have  witnessed,  seen  and  known.  Chris- 
tian witnesses  in  our  day  have  not  seen  the  incarnate 
Chrisi ;  they  have  known  and  do  know  God  in  Christ ; 
they  know  also  the  Comforter  in  their  own  souls  ;  and 
their  testimony  must  needs  be  of  what  they  have  veri- 
fied in  their  own  experience,  for  it  is  thus  we  see  and 
know  "  the  invisible  things  of  God."  And  to  close 
the  mouth  of  one  who  would  tell  what  God  has  done 
in  and  through  hi^n,  because  it  has  been  so  done,  is 
to  silence  God's  witnesses,  under  the  specious  but 
false  pretext  that  what  you  and  I  have  participated 
in  cannot  be  told  to  the  praise  and  glory  of  God,  be- 
cause it  is  egotistical,  and  so  sinful.  To  give  in  to 
,  this  falsehood  is  to  strangle  our  prayer  and  confer- 
ence meetings.  Abstract  statements  of  truth  beget 
abstract   prayers.       Said   Rev.   John  Angell   James, 


A   PROTEST    AGAINST    A    BUGBEAR.  255 

"  If  I  have  had  any  considerable  usefulness  with  my 
people  it  has  arisen  very  much  out  of  my  habit  of 
showing  them  my  heart ;  of  sharing  with  them  my 
joys  and  sorrows  in  all  the  many  and  various  chances 
and  changes  in  life.  It  is  thus  our  Lord  has  dis- 
closed to  us  in  the  Gospel,  and  in  all  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures, his  experience  in  life,  and  the  consolation  of 
His  Father  and  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  It  is  thus  he  de- 
mands of  us  that,  in  bearing  one  another's  burdens, 
we  comfort  them  with  the  very  comfort  wherewith  we 
ourselves  are  comforted  of  God.  Is  it  not  the  united 
testimony  of  the  people  of  God  that  Jesus  has  met 
and  manifested  himself  to  them  peculiarly  and  most 
fully  when  they  have  been  trying  to  help,  guide  and 
comfort  others  ?  It  is  when  they  state,  to  the  glory 
and  praise  of  God,  what  He  has  enabled  them  thus 
to  do  ;  nay,  rather  what  He  has  condescended  to  do 
by  and  through  them,  that  they  do  most  truly  honor 
Him,  and  most  persuasively  encourage  their  fellows 
to  hope  in  the  Lord,  and  to  strive  most  vigorously  to 
advance  His  interests  in  the  hearts  of  men." 

Away  then  with  this  false  and  monstrous  represen- 
tation, that  we  must  not  mention  the  ways  and  walks 
of  usefulness  to  w^hich  God  has  admitted  us.  Speak- 
ing, within  a  week,  to  a  prominent  and  earnest 
preacher  on  the  duty  of  the  brethren  to  take  up  and 
echo  the  word  of  life,  he  said,  "Yes;  but  when  we 
press  the  obligation  to  work  for  Christ,  we  are  imme-^ 
diately  met  with  the  question,  '  But  what  is  there  for 
me  to  do  ?     We  have  few  or  no  poor  in  our  parish. 


256  THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

The  sick  and  the  afflicted  are  visited  by  the  minister  ; 
and  so  there  is  nothing.'"  Wonderful  simplicity; 
but  not  innocence ;  for  there  is  never  a  time  when 
dozens,  and  scores,  ay,  hundreds,  are  not  perishing 
before  our  very  eyes  for  lack  of  knowledge ;  and  it  is 
not  doctrinal  knowledge  they  lack  so  much  as  prac- 
tical knowledge,  the  homely  experiences  of  men  and 
women  of  like  passions  and  like  trials  with  themselves. 
What  they  most  need  to  know  is  what  Jesus  and  the 
Comforter  is  doing  and  will  do  for  those  who  are 
struggling  with  the  burdens  and  the  trials  of  common 
life  to-day ;  and  this  they  would  learn,  not  from  the 
pulpit,  and  on  the  Sabbath,  but  at  every  turn  in  life, 
from  those  who,  in  virtue  of  a  daily  and  hourly  walk 
with  Jesus,  are  both  able,  willing  and  prompt  to  tell 
them  of  the  breadth,  and  length,  and  depth,  and 
height  of  the  love  and  sympathy  of  Christ,  which 
passeth  knowledge.  Brethren  and  sisters,  we  can 
never  do  our  full  duty,  nor  enjoy  our  full  privilege  in 
this,  until  we  have  obtained  grace  from  our  God  ut- 
terly to  repudiate  this  Satanic  bugbear,  this  false 
affirmation  that  we  may  not  properly  and  profitably 
tell  of  God's  grace  to  us  in  opening  many  and  various 
ways  and  means  of  Christian  usefulness.  The  first 
disciples  found  an  unegotistical  way  of  giving  glory 
to  God  for  His  grace  to  men  through  their  endeavors, 
and  so  may  and  must  we,  or  we  shall  forfeit  our  claim 
to  be  called  God's  witnesses. 


XXXIII. 


BUSINESS   LIFE   ILLUSTRATED    IN    THAT 
OF   A   DRY-GOODS   JOBBER. 

[You  are,  it  may  be,  wondering  what  possible  place  in  such  a  volume 
this  chapter  can  have.  I  will  tell  you.  Some  years  ago,  before  the  erec- 
tion of  our  present  post-office,  one  of  our  most  successful  merchants 
said  to  me  :  "  You  know  how  utterly  ignorant  of  the  toils  and  cares  of 
the  merchant's  life,  our  professional  men  are.  I  want  you  to  illumi- 
nate their  benighted  minds  with  an  article  in  the  Atlantic.  Our  law- 
yers, doctors,  and  ministers  plume  themselves  with  the  modest  assump- 
tion that  their  occupations  are  of  a  higher  grade  than  ours,  and  that 
their  mental  powers  and  various  cultivation  entitle  them  to  a  place  and 
esteem  among  men  very  much  above  any  that  could  with  propriety  be 
awarded  to  dealers  in  merchandise. 

No  one  of  these  "  learned  professions,"  as  they  are  often  called,  has 
greater  need  to  know  the  true  status  of  business  men  than  the  minis- 
try. You  are  to  preach  to  them.  It  is  yours  to  instruct  them  in  the 
things  that  pertain  to  the  kingdom  of  God.  Before  you  can  instruct 
them  you  must  know  them,  and  how  and  where  to  take  them  up.  It 
may  chance  to  some  of  you  to  find  there  is  less  need  to  descend 
than  to  ascend  to  their  level ;  and  it  can  scarcely  happen  to  any  grad- 
uate of  the  schools,  bent  on  enlarging  his  area,  not  to  make  some 
valuable  acquisitions  in  this  field  of  investigation.  On  the  other  hand 
you  are  to  be  alive  to  the  peculiar  temptations  of  these  active  spirits  ; 
to  keep  in  mind  the  inspired  warnings  ;  e.  g.,  "  They  that  will  be  rich 
fall  into  temptation  and  a  snare,  and  into  many  foolish  and  hurtful 
lusts  which  drown  men  in  destruction  and  perdition.  For  the  love  of 
money  is  the  root  of  all  evil ;  which  while  some  coveted  after,  they 

257 


258  BUSINESS    LIFE    ILLUSTRATED. 

have  erred  from  the  faith,  and  pierced  themselves  through  with  many 
sorrows."  Beware  how  you  encourage  men  to  get  rich,  "because 
much  money  is  needed  for  Christian  purposes."  Do  what  you  can  to 
save  the  few  who  seem  to  be  predestined  to  this  most  undesirable  dis- 
tinction ;  warn  them  against  the  hurtful  assumption  and  presumption 
that  gain  is  godliness,  or  that  they  are  in  any  degree  better  for  being 
rich  ;  but  rather  make  them  comprehend  the  great  danger  that  riches 
will  corrupt  and  degrade  them.  Poverty  may  enforce  humility,  purity 
and  gentle  courtesy  :  "  The  poor  useth  entreaties  ;  but  the  rich  an- 
swereth  roughly."  "  Do  not  rich  men  oppress  you  ?  Do  they  not 
blaspheme  that  worthy  name  by  the  which  ye  are  called  ?"  It  would  be 
a  miracle  if  riches  did  not  beguile  a  man  into  thinking  of  himself  more 
highly  than  he  ought  to  think,  because  the  overestimate  of  wealth 
being  well-nigh  universal,  the  race  combine,  —  I  had  almost  said, 
conspire^  in  their  deference  and  worship,  to  befool  the  rich.  True 
wealth  can  be  only  in  what  a  man  zV,  not  in  what  he  has.  There  is  a 
mausoleum  on  Fifth  Avenue,  New  York,  on  which  might  well  be 
inscribed,  —  "Stop,  traveller,  and  consider  this  cenotaph.  Where  he 
lies,  for  whom  this  monument  was  built,  cannot  be  told.  Its  founda- 
tions should  be  deep,  for  the  reasonable  hopes  of  millions  lie  beneath. 
The  insatiable  cravings  of  a  not  too  thoughtful  one  engulfed  them 
all.  All  that  made  man  in  the  image  of  his  Maker,  —  noble,  benign, 
beneficent,  and  hopeful  of  the  beatific,  —  went  down  with  them,  and 
like  the  baseless  fabric  of  a  vision  not  a  wreck  remains  behind.  Con- 
sider what  I  tell  thee  and  be  warned  in  time.  You  can  do  no  busi- 
ness wisely  or  well,  that  you  do  not  leaven  with  holiness  to  the  Lord 
and  kindUness  to  your  fellow-men.  "  Seek  first  the  kingdom  of  God 
and  His  righteousness."] 


WHAT  is  a  dry-goods  jobber  ?  No  wonder  you 
ask.  You  have  been  hunting,  perhaps,  for 
our  peripatetic  post-office,  and  have  stumbled  upon 
Summer  Street  and  Devonshire  Street  and  Franklin 
Street.  You  are  almost  ready  to  believe  in  the  lamp 
of  Aladdin,  that  could  build  palaces  in  a  night. 
Looking  up  to  the  stately  and  costly  structures  which 


A  DRY-GOODS  JOBBER.  259 

have  usurped  the  place  of  once-familiar  dwelUngs, 
and  learning  that  they  are,  for  the  most  part,  ten- 
anted by  dry-goods  jobbers,  you  feel,  that,  for  such 
huge  results,  there  must  needs  be  an  adequate  cause  ; 
and  so  you  ask,  "  What  is  a  dry-goods  jobber  ? " 

It  is  more  than  a  curious  question.  For  parents 
desirous  of  finding  their  true  sphere  for  promising 
and  for  unpromising  sons,  it  is  eminently  a  practical 
question.  It  is  a  question  comprehensive  of  dollars 
and  cents ;  also  of  bones  and  sinews ;  of  muscles, 
nerves,  and  brains ;  of  headache,  heartache,  and  the 
cyclopaedia  of  being,  doing,  and  enduring.  An  ade- 
quate answer  to  such  a  question  must  needs  ask  your 
indulgence ;  for  it  cannot  be  condensed  into  a  very 
few  words.^ 

A  dry-goods  jobber  is  a  wholesale  buyer  and  seller, 
for  cash  or  for  approved  credit,  of  all  manner  of 
goods,  wares,  and  materials,  large  and  small,  coarse 
and  fine,  foreign  and  domestic,  which  pertain  to  the 
clothing,  convenience,  and  garnishing,  by  night  and 
by  day,  of  men,  women,  and  children,  from  a  button 
to  a  blanket,  from  a  calico  to  a  carpet,  from  stock- 
ings to  a  head-dress,  from  an  inside-handkerchief  to 
a  waterproof,  from  a  piece  of  tape  to  a  thousand 
bales  of  shirting  ;  not  forgetting  linen,  silk,  or  woollen 
fabrics,  for  drapery  or  upholstery,  for  bed  or  table, 
including  hundreds  of  items  which  time  would  fail 
me  to  recite.  All  these  the  dry-goods  jobber  pro- 
vides for  his  customer,  the  retailer,  who,  in  his  turn, 
will  dispense  them  to  the  consumer. 


26o  BUSINESS    LIFE    ILLUSTRATED. 

A  really  competent  and  successful  dry-goods  job- 
ber in  our  day  is  a  new  creation.  He  is  begotten  of 
the  times.  Of  him,  as  truly  as  of  the  poet,  and  with 
yet  more  emphasis,  it  must  be  said,  "  He  is  born, 
not  made."  He  is  a  poet,  a  philosopher,  an  artist, 
an  engineer,  a  military  commander,  an  advocate,  an 
attorney,  a  financier,  a  steam-engine,  a  telegraph- 
operator,  a  servant-of-all-Vv'ork,  a  Job,  a  Hercules, 
and  a  Bonaparte,  rolled  into  one. 

*'  Exaggeration,"  do  you  say  ?  Not  at  all.  You 
asked  for  information  ?  You  shall  have  it  to  your 
heart's  content. 

To  a  youth,  for  a  time  interrupted  in  his  prepara- 
tion for  college,  I  said,  — 

"  Never  mind  :  this  falls  in  exactly  with  my  well- 
considered  plan.  You  shall  go  into  a  dry-goods 
store  till  your  eyes  recover  strength  ;  it  will  be  the 
best  year's  schooling  of  your  life." 

"  How  so  ?"  was  the  dubious  answer.  "What  can 
I  learn  there  ?  " 

"  Learn  ?  Everything,  common  sense  included, 
which  is  generally  excluded  from  the  university  cur- 
riculum ;  for  example,  time,  place,  quantity,  and  the 
worth  of  each.  You  shall  learn  length,  breadth,  and 
thickness;  hard  and  soft;  pieces  and  yards;  dozens 
and  the  fractions  thereof;  order  and  confusion, 
cleanliness  and  dirt  (to  love  the  one,  and  hate  the 
other)  ;  materials,  colors,  and  shades  of  color ;  pa- 
tience, manners,  decency  in  general;  system  and 
method,  and  the    relation  these  sustain  to  indepen- 


A   DRY-GOODS  JOBBER.  26 1 

dence ;  in  short,  that  there  is  a  vast  deal  more  out 
of  books  than  in  books ;  and,  finally,  that  the  man 
who  knov/s  only  what  is  in  books  is  generally  a  lump 
of  conceit,  and  of  about  as  much  weight  in  the  scales 
of  actual  life  as  the  ashes  of  the  Alexandrian  Librar}^, 
or  the  worms  in  any  parchments  that  may  have  sur- 
vived that  conflagration." 

"Whew!"  was  his  ejaculation:  "I  didn't  know 
there  was  so  much." 

"  I  dare  say  not.  Most  of  your  limited  days  have 
passed  under  the  training  of  men  who  are  in  the  like 
predicament ;  whose  notion  of  the  chief  end  of  man 
is  to  convert  lively  boys  into  thick  dictionaries,  and 
who  honestly  believe  that  the  chief  want  of  the  age 
is  your  walking  dictionary.  Any  other  type  of  hu- 
manity, they  tell  us,  'won't  pay.'  Much  they  know 
of  what  will  and  what  won't  pay  !  This  comes  of 
partial  education,  —  of  one-sided,  of  warped  and 
biassed  education.  It  puts  one  out  of  patience,  this 
arrogance  of  the  university,  this  presuming  upon  the 
ignorance  of  the  million,  this  assertion  of  an  indis- 
pensable necessity  to  make  the  boy  of  the  nineteenth 
century  a  mere  expert  in  some  subdivision  of  one  of 
the  sciences.  The  obstinacy  of  an  hereditary  abso- 
lutism, which  the  world  has  outgrown,  still  lingers  in 
our  schools  of  learning.  Let  us  admit  the  Divine 
right  of  Science,  admit  the  fitness  of  a  limited  num- 
ber of  our  youth  to  become  high  priests  in  her  tem- 
ple, but  no  Divine  right  of  fossil  interpreters  of 
Science  to   compel   the  entire  generation  to  disem- 


262  BUSINESS    LIFE    ILLUSTRATED. 

bowel  their  sons,  and  make  of  these  living  temples 
mere  receptacles  of  Roman,  Grecian,  or  Egyptian 
relics.  We  don't  believe  that  "  mmnmy  is  medici- 
nal," the  Arabian  Doctor  Haly  to  the  contrary  not- 
withstanding. If  it  ever  was,  its  day  has  gone  by. 
Therefore,  let  all  sensible  people  pray  for  a  Crom- 
well, —  not  to  pull  down  university  science,  but  to 
set  up  the  commonwealth  of  common  sense  ;  to  sub- 
ordinate the  former  to  the  latter;  and  to  proclaim 
an  education  for  our  own  age,  and  for  its  exigencies. 
Your  dry-goods  jobber  stands  in  violent  contrast  to 
your  university  man  in  the  matter  of  practical  adap- 
tation. His  knowledge  is  no  affair  of  dried  speci- 
mens, but  every  particle  of  it  a  living  knowledge, 
ready,  at  a  moment's  warning,  for  all  or  any  of  the 
demands  of  life." 

You  are,  perhaps,  thinking,  "Yes,  that  is  suppos- 
able,  because  the  lessons  learned  by  the  jobber  are 
limited  to  the  common  affairs  of  daily  life,  are  not 
prospective  ;  because,  belonging  only  to  the  passing 
day,  they  are  easily  surveyed  on  all  sides,  and  their 
full  use  realized  at  once ;  in  short,  a  mere  matter  of 
buying  and  selling  goods,  a  very  inferior  thing  as 
compared  with  the  dignified  and  scholarly  labors  of 
the  student." 

How  mistaken  this  estimate  is,  will  appear  as  we 
advance  to  something  like  a  comprehensive  survey 
of  the  dry-goods  jobber's  sphere. 

First,  then,  he  is  a  buyer  of  all  manner  of  goods, 
wares,  and  materials,  proper  to  his  department  in 


A    DRY-GOODS  JOBBER.  263 

commerce.  He  is  minutely  informed  in  the  history 
of  raw  materials.  He  knows  the  countries  from 
which  they  come ;  the  adaptation  of  soils  and  cli- 
mates to  their  raising ;  the  skill  of  the  cultivators  ; 
the  shipping  usages ;  the  effect  of  transportation,  by 
land  and  sea,  on  raw  materials  and  on  manufactured 
articles,  with  all  the  mysteries  of  insurance  allow- 
ances and  usages,  the  debentures  on  exportation, 
and  the  duties  on  importation,  in  his  own  and  in 
other  lands.  His  forecast  is  taxed  to  the  utmost  as 
to  what  may  be  the  condition  of  his  own  market  six, 
twelve,  or  eighteen  months  from  the  time  of  ordering 
goods  ;  both  as  to  the  quantity  which  may  be  in 
market,  and  as  to  the  fashion,  which  is  always  chang- 
ing ;  and  also  as  to  the  condition  of  his  customers  to 
pay  for  goods,  which  will  often  depend  upon  the  fer- 
tility of  the  season.  As  respects  home-purchases,  he 
is  compelled  to  learn,  or  to  suffer  for  the  want  of 
knowing,  that  the  difference  between  being  a  skilful, 
pleasant  buyer,  and  the  opposite,  is  a  profit  or  loss 
of  from  five  to  seven  and  a  half  or  ten  per  cent,  or, 
in  other  words,  the  difference,  oftentimes,  between 
success  and  ruin,  between  comfort  and  discomfort, 
between  being  a  welcome  and  a  hated  visitor,  between 
being  honored  as  an  able  merchant  and  contemned 
as  a  mean  man  or  an  unmitigated  bore. 

Is  your  curiosity  piqued  to  know  wherein  buyers 
thus  contrasted  may  differ  ?  They  differ  endlessly, 
like  the  faces  you  meet  on  the  street.  Thus  one 
man  is  born  to   an  open,  frank,  friendly,  and  cour- 


264  BUSINESS    LIFE    ILLUSTRATED. 

teous  manner  ;  another  is  cold,  reserved,  and  sus- 
picious. One  is  prompt,  hilarious,  and  provocative 
of  every  good  feeling,  whenever  you  chance  to  meet ; 
the  other  is  slow,  morose,  and  fit  to  waken  every 
dormant  antipathy  in  your  soul.  An  able  buyer  is, 
or  becomes,  observing  to  the  last  degree.  He  knows 
the  slightest  differences  in  quality  and  in  style,  and 
possesses  an  almost  unerring  taste  ;  knows  the  con- 
dition of  the  market ;  knows  every  holder  of  the 
article  he  wants,  and  the  lowest  price  of  each.  He 
knows  the  peculiarities  of  the  seller,  —  his  strong 
points  and  his  weak  points,  his  wisdom  and  his  foi- 
bles, his  very  temperament,  and  how  it  is  acted  upon 
by  his  dinner,  or  the  want  of  it.  He  knows  the  esti- 
mate put  upon  his  own  note  by  that  seller.  He 
knows  what  his  note  will  sell  for  in  the  street.  He 
knows,  to  a  feather's  weight,  the  influence  of  each  of 
these  items  upon  the  mind  of  the  seller  of  whom  he 
wishes  to  make  a  purchase.  Talk  about  diplomacy  ! 
—  there  's  not  a  man  in  any  court  in  Europe  who 
knows  his  position,  his  fulcrum  and  his  lever,  and 
the  use  he  can  make  of  them,  as  this  man  knows. 
He  can  unravel  any  combination,  penetrate  any  dis- 
guise, surmount  any  obstacle.  Beyond  all  other 
men,  he  knows  when  to  talk,  and  when  to  refrain 
from  talking;  how  to  throw  the  burden  of  negotiation 
on  the  seller ;  how  to  get  the  goods  he  wants  at  his 
own  price,  not  at  his  asking,  but  on  the  suggestion  of 
the  seller,  prompted  by  his  own  politely  obvious  un- 
willingness  to  have  the   seller  part  with   his   mer- 


A    DRY-GOODS    JOBBER.  265 

chandise  at  any  price  not  entirely  acceptable  to 
himself. 

The  incompetent  man,  on  the  other  hand,  is  pre- 
suming, exacting,  and  unfeeling.  He  not  only  de- 
sires, but  asserts  the  desire  in  the  very  teeth  of  the 
seller,  to  have  something  which  that  seller  has  prede- 
termined he  shall  not  have.  He  fights  a  losing  game 
from  the  start.  He  will  probably  begin  by  depre- 
ciating the  goods  which  he  knows,  or  should  know, 
that  the  seller  has  reason  to  hold  in  high  esteem. 
He  will  be  likely  enough  to  compare  them  to  some 
other  goods  which  he  knows  to  be  inferior.  He  will 
thus  arouse  a  feeling  of  dislike,  if  not  of  anger,  where 
his  interest  should  teach  him  to  conciliate  and  soothe  ; 
and,  if  he  sometimes  carry  his  point,  his  very  victory 
is,  in  effect,  a  defeat,  since  it  procures  him  an  in- 
creased antipathy.  This  the  judicious  buyer  never 
does.  He  repudiates  as  a  mere  half-truth  and  a 
relic  of  barbarism,  the  maxim,  "  There  is  no  friend- 
ship in  trade." 

"  But,"  you  are  asking,  "  do  only  those  succeed 
who  are  born  to  these  extraordinary  endowments  ? 
And  those  who  do  succeed,  are  they,  in  fact,  each 
and  all  of  them,  such  wonderfully  capable  men  as 
you  have  described  ?  " 

If  by  success  you  mean  mere  money-making,  it  is 
not  to  be  denied  that  some  men  do  that  by  an  in- 
stinct, little,  if  at  all,  superior  to  that  of  the  dog  who 
smells  out  a  bone.  There  are  exceptions  to  all 
rules ;  and  there  are  chances  in  all  games,  even  in 


266  BUSINESS    LIFE    ILLUSTRATED. 

games  of  skill.  Lord  Timothy  Dexter,  as  he  is  face- 
tiously called,  shipped  warming-pans  to  the  West 
Indies,  in  defiance  of  all  geographical  objections  to 
the  venture,  and  made  money  by  the  shipment,  —  not 
because  warming-pans  were  wanted  there,  but  be- 
cause the  natives  mistook,  and  used  them  for  mo- 
lasses-ladles. It  must  be  owned,  that  a  portion  of 
the  successful  ones  are  lucky  ;  that  a  portion  of  them 
use  the  blunt  weapon  of  an  indomitable  will  as  an 
efficient  substitute  for  the  finer  edge  of  that  nice  tact 
and  good  manners  which  they  lack.  Their  very 
rudeness  seems  to  commend  them  to  the  rude  natures 
which  confound  refinement  with  trickery,  and  assume 
that  brutality  must  needs  be  honest. 

But  there  are  other  things  to  be  said  of  buying. 
The  dry-goods  jobber  frequents  the  auction-room. 
If  you  have  never  seen  a  large  sale  of  dry-goods  at 
auction,  you  have  missed  one  of  the  remarkable  inci- 
dents of  our  day.  You  are  not  yet  aware  of  how 
much  an  auctioneer  and  two  or  three  hundred  jobbers 
can  do  and  endure  in  the  short  space  of  three  hours. 
You  must  know  that  fifty  or  a  hundred  thousand 
dollars'  worth  of  goods  may  easily  change  owners  in 
that  time.  You  are  not  to  dream  of  the  leisurely 
way  of  disposing  of  somebody's  household-furniture 
or  library,  which  characterizes  the  doings  of  one  or 
two  of  our  fellow-citizens  who  manage  such  matters 
within  speaking  distance  of  King's  Chapel,  but  are 
rather  to  picture  to  yourself  a  congregation  of  three 
hundred  of  the  promptest  men  in  our  Atlantic  cities, 


A   DRY-GOODS   JOBBER.  26/ 

with  a  sprinkling  of  Westerners  quite  as  wide  awake 
for  bargains,  each  of  them  having  marked  his  cata- 
logue ;  an  auctioneer  who  considers  the  sale  of  a 
hundred  lots  an  hour  his  proper  rble^  and  who  is  able 
to  see  the  lip,  eye,  or  finger  of  the  man  whose  note 
he  covets,  in  spite  of  all  sounds,  signs,  or  opaque 
bodies.  The  man  of  unquiet  nerves  or  of  exacting 
lungs  would  do  well  to  leave  that  arena  to  the  hard 
heads  and  cool  bloods  who  can  pursue  their  aim,  and 
secure  their  interests,  undisturbed  either  by  the  frac- 
tional rat-a-tat-tat  of  the  auctioneer's  "  Twenty-seven 
af  —  naf —  naf  —  naf,  —  who  '11  give  me  thirty  ?  "  or 
by  the  banter  and  comicalities  which  a  humor-loving 
auctioneer  will  interject  between  these  bird-notes, 
without  changing  his  key,  or  arresting  his  sale  a 
moment.  If  you  would  see  the  evidence  of  compre- 
hensive and  minute  knowledge,  of  good  taste,  quick 
wit,  sound  judgment,  and  electrical  decision,  attend 
an  auction-sale  in  New  York  some  morning.  There 
will  be  no  lack  of  fun  to  season  the  solemnity  of 
business,  nor  of  the  mixture  of  courtesy  and  selfishness 
usual  in  every  gathering,  whether  for  philanthropic, 
scientific,  or  commercial  purposes.  Many  dry-goods 
jobbers  will  attend  the  sale  with  no  intention  of  buy- 
ing, but  simply  to  note  the  prices  obtained,  and  hav- 
ing traced  the  goods  to  their  owners,  to  get  the  same 
in  better  order,  and  on  better  terms  ;  the  commission 
paid  to  the  auctioneer  being  divided,  or  wholly  con- 
ceded by  the  seller  to  the  buyer,  according  to  his  es- 
timate of  the  note. 


268  BUSINESS    LIFE    ILLUSTRATED. 

A  dry-goods  buyer  will  sometimes  spend  a  month 
in  New  York,  the  first  third,  or  half  of  which  he  will 
devote  to  ascertaining  what  goods  are  in  the  market, 
and  what  are  to  arrive ;  also  to  learning  the  mood  of 
the  English,  French,  and  Germans,  who  hold  the 
largest  stocks.  Sometimes  these  gentlemen  will 
make  an  early  trial  of  their  goods  at  auction.  Un- 
satisfactory results  will  rouse  their  phlegm  or  fire  ; 
and  they  declare  they  will  not  send  another  piece  of 
goods  to  auction,  come  what  may.  For  local  or  tem- 
porary reasons,  buyers  sometimes  persist  in  holding 
back  till  the  season  is  so  far  advanced,  that  the  for- 
eign gentlemen  become  alarmed.  Their  credits  in 
London,  Paris,  and  Amsterdam,  are  running  out; 
they  are  anxious  to  make  remittances ;  and  then  en- 
sues one  of  those  dry-goods  panics  so  characteristic 
of  New  York  and  its  mixed  multitude.  An  avalanche 
of  goods  descends  upon  the  auction-rooms,  and  prices 
drop  ten,  twenty,  forty  per  cent  it  may  be ;  and  the 
unlucky  or  short-sighted  men  who  made  early  pur- 
chases are  in  desperate  haste  to  run  off  their  stocks 
before  the  market  is  irreparably  broken  down. 
Whether,  therefore,  to  buy  early  or  late,  in  large  or 
in  small  quantities,  at  home  or  abroad,  are  questions 
beset  with  difficulty.  He  who  imports  largely  may 
land  his  goods  in  a  bare  market,  and  reap  a  golden 
harvest,  or  in  a  market  so  glutted  with  goods,  that 
the  large  sums  he  counts  out  to  pay  the  duties  may 
be  but  a  fraction  of  the  loss  he  knows  to  be  inevit- 
able. 


A    DRY-GOODS   JOBBER.  269 

In  addition  to  the  problems  belonging  to  time  and 
place  of  purchasing,  to  quantities  and  prices,  there  is 
a  host  of  other  problems  begotten  of  styles,  of  colors, 
of  assortments,  of  texture  and  finish,  of  adaptation  to 
one  market  or  another.  The  profit  on  a  case  of 
goods  is  often  sacrificed  by  the  introduction  or  omis- 
sion of  one  color  or  figure,  the  presence  or  absence 
of  which  makes  the  merchandise  desirable  or  unde- 
sirable. Little  less  than  omniscience  will  suffice  to 
guard  against  the  sometimes  sudden,  and  often  most 
unaccountable  freaks  of  fashion,  whose  fiat  may  doom 
a  thing,  in  every  respect  admirably  adapted  to  its 
intended  use,  to  irretrievable  condemnation  and  loss 
of  value.  And  when  you  remember  that  the  pur- 
chases of  dry-goods  must  be  made  in  very  large 
quantities,  from  a  month,  to  six  or  even  twelve 
months,  before  the  buyer  can  sell  them  ;  and  that  his 
sales  are  many  times  larger  than  his  capital,  and  most 
of  them  on  long  credit,  —  you  have  before  you  a 
combination  of  exigencies  hardly  to  be  paralleled 
elsewhere. 

The  crisis  of  1857  brought  a  general  collapse. 
Scores  and  scores  of  jobbers  failed  ;  very  few  dared 
to  buy  goods.  Mills  were  compelled  to  run  on  short 
time,  or  to  cease  altogether.  The  country  became 
bare  of  the  common  necessaries  of  life.  In  process 
of  time,  trade  rallied,  manufacturing  recommenced, 
orders  for  goods  poured  in ;  and  for  a  twelve  month, 
and  more,  the  manufacturer  had  it  all  his  own  way. 
His  goods  are  all  sold  ahead,  —  months  ahead  of  his 


270  BUSINESS    LIFE    ILLUSTRATED. 

ability  to  manufacture.  He  makes  his  own  price, 
and  chooses  his  customer.  This  operates  not  un- 
kindly on  the  jobbers  who  are  wealthy  and  independ- 
ent; but,  for  those  who  have  but  lately  begun  to 
mount  the  hill  of  difficult}^,  it  offers  one  more  impedi- 
ment ;  for,  to  men  who  have  a  great  many  goods  to 
sell,  it  is  a  matter  of  moment  to  secure  the  customers 
who  can  buy  in  large  quantities,  and  whose  notes 
will  bring  the  money  of  banks  or  private  capitalists 
as  soon  as  offered.  Against  such  buyers,  men  of 
limited  means  and  of  only  average  business  ability, 
have  but  a  poor  chance.  There  will  always  be  some 
articles  of  merchandise  in  the  buying  or  selling  of 
which  they  cannot  compete. 

When  a  financial  crisis  overtakes  the  community, 
we  hear  much  and  sharp  censure  of  all  speculation. 
Speculators,  one  and  all,  are  forthwith  consigned  to 
an  abyss  of  obloquy.  The  virtuous  public  outside  of 
trade  washes  its  hands  of  all  participation  in  the  in- 
iquity. This  same  virtuous  public  knows  very  little 
of  what  it  is  talking  about.  What  is  speculation? 
Shall  we  say,  in  brief  and  in  general,  that  it  consists 
in  running  risks,  in  taking  extra-hazardous  risks,  on 
the  chance  of  making  unusually  large  profits  ?  Is  it 
that  men  have  abandoned  the  careful  ways  of  the 
fathers,  and  do  not  confine  themselves  to  small 
stores,  small  stocks,  and  cash  transactions?  And 
do  you  know  who  it  is  that  has  compelled  this 
change  ?  That  same  public  who  denounce  specula- 
tion in  one  breath,  and  in  the  next  clamor  for  goods 


A    DRY-GOODS   JOBBER.  2/1 

at  low  prices,  and  force  the  jobber  into  large  stores, 
and  large  sales  at  small  profits,  as  the  indispensable 
condition  of  his  very  existence. 

Those  who  thus  rail  at  speculation  are  generally 
quite  unaware  that  their  own  inexorable  demand  for 
goods  at  low  prices  is  one  of  the  principal  efficient 
causes  of  that  of  which  they  complain.  They  do  not 
know  that  the  capacious  maw  of  the  insatiable  public 
is  yearly  filled  with  millions  on  millions  of  shirtings 
and  sheetings,  and  other  articles  of  prime  necessity, 
without  one  farthing  of  profit  to  the  jobber.  The 
outside  world  reason  from  the  assumption  that  the 
jobber  might,  but  will  not,  avoid  taking  considerable 
risks.  They  do  not  consider,  for  they  do  not  know, 
how  entirely  all  is  changed  from  the  days  and  cir- 
cumstances in  which  a  very  small  business  would 
suffice  to  maintain  the  merchant.  They  do  not  con- 
sider that  an  immense  amount  of  goods  being,  of 
compulsion,  sold  without  profit,  a  yet  other  huge 
amount  must  be  so  sold  as  to  compensate  for  this. 
Nor  do  they  consider  that  the  possibility  of  doing 
this  is  often  contingent  upon  the  buyer's  carefully  cal- 
culated probability  of  a  rise  in  the  article  he  is  pur- 
chasing. Many  a  time  is  the  jobber  enabled  and  in- 
clined to  purchase  largely  only  by  the  assurance,  that, 
from  the  time  of  his  purchase,  the  price  will  be  ad- 
vanced. 

The  sdli?ig  of  dry-goods  is  another  department  in 
high  art  about  which  the  ignorance  of  outsiders  is  in- 
effable.    I  was  once  asked,  in  the  way  of  courtesy 


2/2  BUSINESS    LIFE    ILLUSTRATED. 

and  good  neighborhood,  to  call  on  a  clergyman  in 
our  vicinity;  which  I  did.  Desirous  of  doing  his 
part  in  the  matter  of  good  fellowship  and  smooth 
conversation,  he  began  thus  :  — 

"  Well,  now,  Mr.  Smith,  you  know  all  about  busi- 
ness. I  suppose,  if  I  were  to  go  into  a  store  to  buy 
goods,  nineteen  men  out  of  twenty  would  cheat  me  if 
they  could  ;  would  n't  they  ? " 

"  No,  sir,"  I  answered,  with  a  swelling  of  indigna- 
tion at  the  injustice,  a  mingling  of  pity  for  the  ignor- 
ance, and  a  foreboding  of  small  benefit  from  the 
preaching  of  a  minister  of  the  Gospel,  who  knew  so 
little  of  the  world  he  lived  in, — "no,  sir;  nineteen 
men  in  twenty  would  not  cheat  you,  if  they  could, 
for  the  surest  of  all  reasons,  —  it  w-ould  be  dead 
against  their  own  interest." 

Not  a  day  passes  but  the  question  is  asked  by  our 
youths  who  are  being  initiated  in  the  routine  of  sell- 
ing goods,  "  Is  this  honest  ?  Is  that  honest  ?  Is  it 
honest  to  mark  your  goods  as  costing  more  than  they 
do  cost.^  Is  it  honest  to  ask  one  man  more  than 
you  ask  another  ?  Ought  not  the  same  price  to  be 
named  to  every  buyer  ?  Is  n't  it  cheating  to  get 
twenty-five  per  cent  profit  ?  Can  a  man  sell  goods 
without  lying  ?  Are  men  compelled  to  lie  and  cheat 
a  little  in  order  to  earn  an  honest  living  ?  " 

What  is  the  reason  that  these  questions  will  keep 
coming  up  ?  that  they  can  no  more  be  laid  than 
Banquo's  ghost  ?  Here  are  some  of  the  reasons. 
First  and  foremost,  multitudes  of  young  men,  whose 


A    DRY-GOODS   JOBBER.  2/3 

parents  followed  the  plough,  the  loom,  or  the  anvil, 
have  taken  into  their  heads  that  they  will  neither 
dig,  hammer,  nor  pl}^  the  shuttle.  To  soil  their 
hands  with  manual  labor  they  cannot  abide.  The 
sphere  of  commerce  looks,  to  their  longing  eyes,  a 
better  thing  than  lying  down  in  green  pastures,  or 
than  a  peaceful  life  beside  still  waters,  procured  by 
laborious  farming,  or  by  any  mechanical  pursuit. 
Clean  linen  and  stylish  apparel  are  inseparably  asso- 
ciated in  their  minds  with  an  easy  and  elegant  life  ; 
and  so  they  pour  into  our  cities  ;  and  the  ranks  of 
the  merchants  are  filled  and  over-filled  many  times. 
Once,  the  merchant  had  only  to  procure  an  inviting 
stock,  and  his  goods  sold  themselves.  He  did  not 
go  after  customers ;  they  came  to  him ;  and  it  was  a 
matter  of  favor  to  them  to  supply  their  wants.  Now 
all  that  is  changed.  There  are  many  more  mer- 
chants than  are  needed.  Buyers  are  in  request;  and 
bu3^ers  whose  credit  is  the  best,  to  a  very  great  ex- 
tent, dictate  the  prices  at  which  they  will  buy.  The 
question  is  no  longer,  How  large  a  profit  can  I  get  ? 
but,  How  small  a  profit  shall  I  accept  ?  The  compe- 
tition for  customers  is  so  fierce,  that  the  seller  hardly 
dares  ask  any  profit,  for  fear  his  more  anxious  neigh- 
bor will  undersell  him.  In  order  to  attract  cus- 
tomers, one  thing  after  another  has  been  made  "  a 
leading  article,"  a  bait  to  be  offered  at  cost,  or  even 
less  than  cost, — that  being  oftentimes  the  condition 
on  which  alone  the  purchaser  will  make  a  beginning 
of  buying. 


2/4  BUSINESS    LIFE    ILLUSTRATED. 

"Jenkins,"  cried  an  anxious  seller,  "you  don't 
buy  anything  of  me ;  and  I  can  sell  you  as  cheap  as 
any.  Here  's  a  bale  of  sheetings,  now,  at  eight  cents, 
will  do  you  good." 

"  How  many  have  you  got  ?  " 

"  Oh,  plenty  !  " 

"  Well,  how  many  ?  " 

"  Fifteen  bales." 

"Well,  I '11  take  them." 

"  Come  in,  and  buy  something  more." 

"  No  :  nothing  more  to-day." 

Here  was  a  loss  of  seventy-five  dollars  to  the 
seller  ;  and  yet  his  customer  did  not  dare  buy  other 
goods. 

It  will  be  obvious  that  the  selling  a  part  of  one's 
goods  at  less  than  cost  enhances  the  necessity  of 
getting  a  profit  on  the  rest.  But  how  to  do  this,  under 
the  sharp  scrutiny  of  a  buyer  who  knows  that  his 
own  success,  not  to  say  his  very  existence,  depends 
upon  his  paying  no  profit  possible  to  be  avoided,  — 
no  profit,  at  all  events,  not  certainly  paid  by  some 
sharp  neighbor,  who  is  competing  with  him  for  the 
same  trade. 

"  But  is  there  anything  in  all  this,"  you  are  asking, 
"  to  preclude  the  jobber's  telling  the  truth  }  "  — 
"  Nothing." — "  Anything  to  preclude  strict  honesty  }  " 
—  "  Nothing."  —  "  Why,  then,  do  the  questions  you 
have  quoted  continually  recur  ?  " 

I  answer :  In  order  to  get  his  share  of  the  best 
custom  in  his  line,  the  dry-goods  jobber  has  taken  a 


A    DRY-GOODS   JOBBER.  2J^ 

Store  in  the  best  position  in  town,  at  a  rent  of  from 
three  to  fifty  thousand  dollars  a  year;  has  hired  men 
and  boys  at  all  prices,  from  fifty  dollars  to  five  thou- 
sand, and  enough  of  these  to  result,  in  an  aggregate, 
of  from  five  to  fifty  thousand  dollars  a  year  for  help, 
without  v/hich  his  business  cannot  be  done.  Add  to 
this  the  usual  average  for  store  expenses  of  every 
name,  and  for  the  family  expenses  of  two,  five,  or 
seven  partners,  and  you  find  a  dry-goods  firm  under 
the  necessity  of  getting  out  of  their  year's  sales 
somewhere  from  fifteen  to  a  hundred  and  fifty  thou- 
sand dollars'  profit  before  they  shall  have  saved  one 
cent  to  meet  the  losses  of  an  unfavorable  season. 

Now,  though  there  is  nothing  even  in  all  these 
urgencies  to  justify  a  single  lie  or  fraud,  there  is 
much  to  sharpen  a  man's  wits  to  secure  the  sale  of 
his  goods ;  much  to  educate  him  in  all  manner  of  ex- 
pedients to  baffle  the  inquiries  of  customers  v/ho 
would  be  offended  if  they  could  discover  that  he  ever 
charged  them  the  profit  without  which  he  could  never 
meet  his  expenses.  And  the  jobber's  problem  is 
complicated  by  the  folh^,  universally  prevalent  among 
buyers,  of  expecting  som.e  partiality,  or  peculiarity  of 
favor  over  their  neighbors,  who  are  just  as  good  as 
themselves.  Every  dry-goods  jobber  knows  that  his 
customer's  foolish  hope  and  expectation  often  de- 
mand three  absurdities  of  him,  —  first,  the  assurance 
that  he  has  the  advantage  over  all  other  jobbers  in  a 
better  stock  of  goods,  better  bought ;  secondly,  that 
he  has  a  peculiar  friendship  for  himself  ;  and,  thirdly, 


276  BUSINESS    LIFE    ILLUSTRATED. 

that,  though  of  other  men  he  must  needs  get  a  profit, 
in  his  special  instance  he  shall  ask  little  or  none  ; 
and  that,  such  is  his  regard  for  him,  it  is  a  matter  of 
no  moment  whether  he  live  in  Lowell  or  Louisiana, 
in  New  Bedford  or  Nebraska,  or  whether  he  pay 
New  England  bank-notes  within  thirty  days,  or  wild- 
cat money  and  wild-lands,  which  may  be  converted 
into  cash,  with  more  or  less  expense  and  loss,  some- 
where between  nine  months  and  nine  and  twenty 
years. 

And  yet  the  uninitiated  "  can't  understand  how  an 
honest  merchant  can  have  two  prices  for  the  same 
goods."  An  honest  man  has  but  one  price  for  the 
same  goods  ;  and  that  is  the  cash  price.  All  outside 
of  that  is  barter,  —  goods  for  notes.  His  first  inquiry 
is  "  Whal*  is  the  market  value  of  the  note  offered  ?  " 
True,  he  knows  that  many  of  the  notes  he  takes  can- 
not be  sold  at  all ;  but  he  also  knows,  that  the  notes 
he  is  willing  to  take  will,  in  the  aggregate,  be  guar- 
anteed by  a  reservation  of  one,  two,  or  three  per  cent, 
and  that  the  note  of  the  particular  applicant  for  credit 
will  tend  to  swell  or  diminish  the  rate ;  and  he  can- 
not afford  to  exchange  his  goods  for  any  note,  except 
at  a  profit  which  will  guaranty  its  payment  when  due, 
which,  in  other  words,  will  make  the  note  equal  in 
value  to  cash. 

Now,  it  is  just  because  all  business-contingencies 
cannot  be  worked  into  an  unvarying  form  as  regular 
as  the  multiplication-table,  and  as  plain  to  the  appre- 
hension of  all  men,  that  a  vast  amount  of  Iving  and 


A    DRY-GOODS   JOBBER.  277 

of  dishonesty  is  imputed  where  it  does  not  exist. 
Merchants  are  much  like  other  men,  —  wise  and  un- 
wise, far-sighted  and  short-sighted,  selfish  and  unself- 
ish, honest  and  dishonest.  But  that  they  are,  as  a 
class,  more  dishonest  than  other  men,  is  so  far  from 
being  true,  that  I  much  doubt  if  we  should  overstrain 
the  matter  if  we  should  affirm  that  they  are  the  most 
honest  class  of  men  in  the  community.  There  is 
much  in  their  training  which  contributes  directly,  and 
most  efficiently,  to  this  result.  Their  very  first  lessons 
are  in  feet  and  inches,  in  pounds  and  ounces,  in  exact 
calculations,  in  accounts  and  balances.  Careless- 
ness, mistakes,  inaccuracies,  they  are  made  to  under- 
stand, are  unpardonable  sins.  The  boy  who  goes  into 
a  ftore  learns,  for  the  first  time,  that  half  a  cent,  a 
quarter  of  a  cent,  an  eighth  of  a  cent,  may  be  a  mat- 
ter of  the  gravest  import.  He  finds  a  thorough  book- 
keeper absolutely  refusing  himself  rest  till  he  has 
detected  an  error  of  ten  cents  in  a  business  of  six 
months ;  and  every  day's  experience  enforces  the 
lesson.  It  is  giving  what  is  due,  and  claiming  what 
is  due,  from  year's  end  to  year's  end.  Among  mer- 
chants, it  is  matter  of  common  notoriety,  that  the 
prompt  and  exact  adherence  to  orders  insisted  on  by 
merchants,  and  prompt  advice  of  receipt  of  business 
and  of  progress,  cannot  be  expected  from  our  worthy 
brethren  at  the  bar.  (The  few  honorable  exceptions 
are  respectfully  informed  that  they  are  not  referred 
to.)  We  do  not  expect  them  to  weigh  or  measure 
the  needless  annoyance  to  which  they  often,  subject 


278  BUSINESS    LIFE    ILLUSTRATED. 

US,  because  they  have  never  been,  like  ourselves, 
trained  to  the  use  of  weights  and  measures;  and 
therefore  we  are  not  willing  to  stigmatize  them  as 
dishonest,  though  they  do,  in  fact,  often  steal  our 
time  and  strength  and  patience  by  withholding  an 
answer  to  a  business  letter. 

None  but  those  who  are  in  the  business  know  the 
assiduous  attention  with  which  the  dry-goods  jobber 
follows  up  his  customers.  None  but  they  know  the 
urgent  necessity  of  doing  this.  The  jobber  may  have 
travelled  a  thousand  miles  to  make  his  customer's 
acquaintance,  and  to  prevail  upon  him  to  come  to 
Boston  to  make  his  purchases ;  and  some  neighbor, 
who  boards  at  the  hotel  he  happens  to  make  his  rest- 
ing-place, lights  upon  him,  shows  him  attention, 
tempts  him  with  bargains  not  to  be  refused,  prevails 
upon  him  to  make  the  bulk  of  his  purchases  of  him, 
before  his  first  acquaintance  even  hears  of  his  arri- 
val. To  guard  against  disappointments  such  as  this, 
the  jobber  sends  his  salesmen  to  live  at  hotels, 
haunts  the  hotels  himself,  studies  the  hotel-register 
far  more  assiduously  than  he  can  study  his  own  com- 
fort, or  the  comfort  of  his  wife  and  children.  Of  one 
such  jobber  it  was  said  facetiously,  "  He  goes  the 
round  of  all  the  hotels  every  morning  with  a  lantern, 
to  wake  up  his  customers."  I  had  an  errand  one 
day  at  noon  to  such  a  devotee.  Inquiring  for  him  in 
the  counting-room,  I  was  told  by  his  book-keeper  to 
follow  the  stairs  to  the  top  of  the  store,  and  I  should 
find  him.     I  mounted  flight  after  flight  to  the  attic ; 


A    DRY-GOODS   JOBBER.  279 

and  there  I  found,  not  only  the  man,  but  also  one  or 
two  of  his  customers,  surrounding  a  huge  packing- 
case,  upon  which  they  had  extemporized  a  dinner,  — 
cold  turkey  and  tongue,  and  other  edibles,  taken 
standing,  with  plenty  of  fun  for  a  dessert.  The  next 
time  we  happened  to  meet,  I  said,  "  So  you  take  not 
only  time,  but  also  customers,  by  the  forelock." 

"  Yes,  to  be  sure  !  "  was  his  answer.  "  Let  'em  go 
to  their  hotel  to  dinner  in  the  middle  of  a  bill,  and 
somebody  lights  upon  'em,  and  carries  'em  off  to  buy 
elsewhere;  or  they  begin  to  remember  that  it  is  a 
long  way  home,  feel  homesick,  slip  off  to  New  York 
as  being  so  far  on  the  way,  and  that 's  the  last  you  see 
of  'em.  No :  we're  bound  to  see  'em  through,  and 
no  let-up  till  they've  bought  all  they've  got  on  their 
memorandum." 

We  have  not  yet  touched  the  question  of  credit. 
To  whom  shall  the  jobber  sell  his  goods  ?  It  is  the 
question  of  questions.  Many  a  man  who  has  bought 
well ;  who,  in  other  respects,  has  sold  well ;  who  pos- 
sessed all  the  characteristics  which  recommend  a 
man  to  the  confidence  and  to  the  good-will  of  his 
fellows,  —  has  made  shipwreck  of  his  fortunes  be- 
cause of  his  inability  to  meet  this  question.  He  sold 
his  goods  to  men  who  never  paid  him.  To  say  that 
in  this  the  most  successful  jobbers  are  governed  by 
an  instinct,  by  an  intuitive  conviction,  which  is  supe- 
rior to  all  rules  of  judgment,  would  be  to  allege  what 
it  would  be  difBcult  to  prove.  It  would  be  less  diffi- 
cult to  maintain  that  every  competent  merchant,  how- 


280  BUSINESS    LIFE    ILLUSTRATED. 

ever  unconscious  of  the  fact,  has  a  standard  of  judg- 
ment by  which  he  tries  each  appHcant  for  credit. 
There  are  characteristics  of  men  who  can  safely  be 
credited,  entirely  familiar  to  his  thoughts.  He  looks 
upon  the  man,  and  instantly  feels  that  he  is,  or  is 
not,  the  man  for  him.  He  thinks  his  decision  an  in- 
stinct, or  an  intuition,  because,  through  much  practice, 
these  mental  operations  have  become  so  rapid  as  to 
defy  analysis.  Not  being  infallible,  he  sometimes 
mistakes ;  and,  when  he  so  mistakes,  he  will  be  sure 
to  say,  "  I  made  that  loss  because  I  relied  too  much 
upon  this  characteristic,  or  because  I  did  not  allow 
its  proper  weight  to  the  absence  of  some  other ;  be- 
cause I  thought  his  shrewdness  or  his  honesty,  his 
enterprise  or  his  economy,  would  save  him ;  "  imply- 
ing that  he  had  observed  some  non-conformity  to  his 
standard,  but  had  relied  upon  some  excellency  in  ex- 
cess to  make  up  for  it. 

What  are  the  perplexities  which  beset  the  ques- 
tion, "  To  whom  shall  the  jobber  sell  his  goods  ? " 
They  are  manifold :  and  some  of  them  are  peculiar 
to  our  country.  Our  territory  is  very  extensive  ;  our 
population  very  heterogeneous ;  the  economy  and 
close  calculation  which  recommend  a  man  in  Massa- 
chusetts may  discredit  him  in  Louisiana.  The 
very  countenance  is  often  a  sure  indication  of  char- 
acter and  of  capacity,  when  it  is  one  of  a  class  and  a 
region  whose  pecularities  we  thoroughly  understand ; 
but,  coming  to  us  from  other  classes  and  regions,  we 
are  often  at  fault, — more  especially  in  these  latter 


A    DRY-GOODS   JOBBER.  28 1 

days,  when  all  strong-mindedness  is  presumed  to  be 
foreshadowed  in  a  stiff  beard.  Time  was,  when 
something  could  be  inferred  from  a  lip,  a  mouth,  a 
chin ;  when  character  could  be  found  in  the  contour 
and  color  of  a  cheek ;  but  that  time  has  passed. 
The  time  was,  when,  among  a  homogeneous  people, 
a  few  time-honored  characteristics  were  both  relied 
on  and  insisted  on;  for  example,,  good  parentage, 
good  moral  character,  a  thorough  training,  and  su- 
perior capacity,  joined  to  industry,  economy,  sound 
judgment,  and  good  manners  ;  but  Young  America 
has  learned  to  make  light  of  some  of  these,  and  to 
dispense  altogether  with  others  of  them. 

Once,  the  buyer  was  required  to  prove  himself  an 
honest,  worthy,  and  capable  man.  If  he  wanted 
credit,  he  must  humbly  sue  for  it,  and  prove  himself 
deserving  of  it ;  and  no  man  thought  of  applying  for  it 
who  was  not  prepared  to  furnish  irrefragable  evi- 
dence. Once,  a  reference  to  some  respectable  ac- 
quaintance would  serve  the  purpose  ;  and  neighbors 
held  themselves  bound  to  tell  all  they  knew.  The 
increase  of  merchants,  and  fierce  competition  for  cus- 
tomers, have  changed  this.  Men  now  regard  their 
knowledge  of  other  men  as  a  part  of  their  capital  or 
stock-in-trade.  Their  knowledge  has  been  acquired 
at  much  cost  of  labor  and  money ;  and  they  hold 
themselves  absolved  from  all  obligation  to  give  away 
what  they  have  thus  expensively  acquired.  More- 
over, their  confidence  has  sometimes  been  betrayed, 
and  their  free  communications  have  been  remorse- 


282  BUSINESS    LIFE    ILLUSTRATED. 

lessly  used  to  their  disadvantage.  Alas,  it  cannot  be 
denied  that  even  dry-goods  jobbers,  with  all  their  ex- 
traordinary endowments,  are  not  quite  perfect ;  for 
some  of  them  will  "  state  the  thing  that  is  not,"  and 
others  "  convey  "  their  neighbor's  property  into  their 
own  coffers,  —  men  who  prefer  gain  to  godliness,  and 
mistake  much  money  for  respectability. 

There  are  very  few  men,  in  certain  sections  of  the 
country,  w4io  will  absolutely  refuse  to  give  a  letter  of 
introduction  to  a  neighbor  on  the  simple  ground  of 
ill-desert.  Men  dread  the  ill-will  of  their  neighbor, 
and  particularly  the  ill-will  of  an  unscrupulous  neigh- 
bor ;  so,  when  such  a  neighbor  asks  a  letter,  they 
give  it.  I  remember  such  a  one  bringing  a  dozen  or 
more  letters,  some  of  which  contained  the  highest 
commendation.  The  writer  of  one  of  these  letters 
sent  a  private  note,  through  the  mail,  warning  one 
of  the  persons  addressed  against  the  bearer  of  his 
own  commendatory  letter.  Those  who  had  no  w^arh- 
ing  sold,  and  lost.  It  would  be  difficult  to  find  a 
man,  however  unworthy,  who  could  not,  from  some 
quarter,  obtain  a  very  respectable  letter  of  introduc- 
tion. One  of  the  greatest  rogues  that  ever  came  to 
Boston  brought  letters  from  two  of  the  foremost 
houses  in  New  York  to  two  firms  second  to  none  in 
Boston.  Neither  of  these  gentlemen  was  in  fault  in 
the  matter ;  the  train  had  been  laid  by  some  obliging 
cousin  in  a  banking-house  in  London. 

In  making  up  our  account  of  the  difficulties  with 
which  a  dry-goods  jobber  has  to  deal  in  conducting  a 


A    DRY-GOODS    JOBBER.  283 

successful  business,  it  must  be  distinctly  stated,  that 
on  no  man  can  he  count  for  information,  which  will, 
however  remotely  or  slightly,  compromise  the  interest 
of  the  one  inquired  of.  Never,  perhaps,  was  it  so 
true  as  now,  that  "  the  seller  has  need  of  a  hundred 
eyes."  The  competent  jobber  uses  his  eyes,  first  of 
all,  upon  the  person  of  the  man  who  desires  to  buy 
of  him.  He  questions  him  about  himself,  with  such 
directness  or  indirectness  as  instinct  and  experience 
dictate.  He  learns  to  discriminate  between  the 
sensitiveness  of  the  high-toned  honest  man  and  the 
sensitiveness  of  the  rogue.  Many  men  of  each  class 
are  inclined  to  resent  and  resist  the  catechism. 
Strange  as  it  may  seem,  the  very  men  \vho  would 
inexorably  refuse  a  credit  to  those  who  should  de- 
chne  to  answer  their  inquiries  are  the  men  most 
inclined  to  resent  any  inquiry  about  themselves. 
While  they  demand  the  fullest  and  most  particular 
information  from  their  customers,  they  wonder  that 
others  will  not  take  them  on  their  own  estimate  of 
themselves. 

The  jobber  next  directs  his  attention  to  the  buyer's 
knowledge  of  goods,  —  of  their  qualit}^,  their  style, 
their  worth  in  market,  and  their  fitness  for  his  own 
market;  all  of  which  w'ill  come  to  light,  as  he  offers 
to  his  notice  the  various  articles  he  has  for  sale.  He 
will  improve  the  opportunity  to  draw  him  out  in  gen- 
eral conversation,  so  guiding  it  as  to  touch  many 
points  of  importance,  and  yet  not  so  as  to  betray  a 
want  of  confidence.     He  sounds  him  as  to  his  know- 


284  BUSINESS    LIFE    ILLUSTRATED. 

ledge  of  other  merchants  at  home  and  in  the  city ; 
takes  the  names  of  his  references,  —  of  several,  if  he 
can  get  them,  —  puts  himself  in  communication  with 
men  who  know  him,  both  at  his  home  and  in  the 
city.  If  he  can  harmonize  the  information  derived 
from  all  these  sources  into  a  consistent  and  satisfac- 
tory whole,  he  will  then  do  his  utmost  to  secure  his 
customer,  both  by  selling  him  his  goods  at  a  profit 
so  small  that  he  need  have  little  fear  of  any  neigh- 
bor's underselling  him,  and  also  by  granting  every 
possible  accommodation  as  to  the  time  and  manner 
of  payment. 

A  moderately-thoughtful  man  will  by  this  time 
begin  to  think  the  elements  of  toil  and  of  perplexity 
already  suggested  sufficient  for  the  time  and  strength 
of  any  man,  and  more  than  he  would  wish  to  under- 
take. But  experience  alone  could  teach  him  in  how 
many  ways  indulged  customers  can  and  do  manage 
to  make  the  profit  they  pay  so  small,  and  the  toil 
and  vexation  they  occasion  so  great,  that  the  jobber 
is  often  put  upon  weighing  the  question,  Should  I 
not  be  richer  without  them  ?  Thus,  for  example, 
some  of  them  will  affect  to  doubt  that  the  jobber 
wishes  to  sell  to  them,  and  propose,  as  a  test,  that 
he  shall  let  them  have  some  choice  article  at  the 
cost,  or  at  less  than  the  cost,  —  now  on  one  pretext, 
and  now  on  another,  —  intimating  an  indisposition 
to  buy,  if  they  cannot  be  indulged  in  that  one  thing. 
If  they  carry  their  point,  that  exceptional  price  is 
thenceforth  claimed  as  the  rule.     Another  dav,  the 


A    DRY-GOODS   JOBBER.  2^5 

concession  will  be  asked  on  something  else ;  and,  by- 
extending  this  game  so  as  to  include  a  number  of 
jobbers,  these  shrewd  buyers  will  manage  to  lay  in 
an  assorted  stock  on  which  there  will  have  been  little 
or  no  profit  to  the  sellers.  To  cap  the  climax  of 
vexation,  these  persons  will  very  probably  come  in, 
after  not  many  days,  and  propose  to  cash  their  notes 
at  double  interest  off.  Only  an  official  of  the  Inqui- 
sition could  turn  the  thumb-screw  so  many  times, 
and  so  remorselessly. 

But  we  have  yet  to  consider  the  collection  of 
debts.  The  jobber  who  has  not  capital  so  ample  as 
to  buy  only  for  cash  is  expected  invariably  to  settle 
his  purchases  by  giving  his  note,  payable  at  bank, 
on  a  fixed  day.  He  pays  it  when  due,  or  fails.  Not 
so  with  his  customers;  multitudes  of  them  shrink 
from  giving  a  note  payable  at  bank ;  and  some  alto- 
gether refuse  to  do  so.  They  wish  to  buy  on  open 
account,  or  to  give  a  note  to  be  paid  at  maturity,  if 
convenient ;  otherwise  not.  The  number  of  really 
prompt  and  punctual  men,  as  compared  with  those 
who  are  otherwise,  is  very  small.  The  number  of 
those  who  never  fail  is  smaller  still.  The  collection- 
laws  are  completely  alike,  probably,  in  no  two  States. 
Some  of  them  appear  to  have  J)een  constructed  for 
the  accommodation,  not  of  honest  creditors,  but  of 
dishonest  debtors.  In  others,  they  are  such  as  to 
put  each  jobber  in  fear  of  every  other ;  a  first  attach- 
ment taking  all  the  property,  if  the  debt  be  large 
enough,  leaving  little  or  nothing,  usually,  for  those 


286  BUSINESS    LIFE    ILLUSTRATED. 

who  have  been  willing  to  give  the  debtor  such  indul- 
gence as  might  enable  him  to  pay  in  full,  were  it 
granted  by  all  his  creditors. 

No  jobber  can  open  his  letters  in  the  morning  in 
the  certainty  of  finding  no  tidings  of  a  failure.  No 
jobber,  leaving  his  breakfast-table,  can  assure  his 
wife  and  children,  sick  or  well,  that  he  will  dine  or 
sup  with  them  :  any  one  of  a  dozen  railroad  trains 
may,  for  aught  he  knows,  be  sweeping  him  away  to 
some  remote  point  to  battle  with  the  mischances  of 
trade,  the  misfortunes  of  honest  men,  or  the  knavery 
of  rogues,  and  the  meshes  of  the  law.  Once  in  the 
cars,  he  casts  his  eye  around  in  uneasy  expectation 
of  finding  some  one  or  more  of  his  neighbors  bound 
on  the  same  errand.  While  yet  peering  over  the 
seats  in  front  of  him,  he  is  unpleasantly  startled  by 
a  slap  on  the  shoulder,  and,  "  Ah,  John !  bound 
East?  What's  in  the  wind?  Any  ducks  in  these 
days  ?  "  —  "  Why,  —  yes,  —  no,  —  that  is,  I  'm  going 
down  along,  —  little  uncertain  how  far,  —  depends 
on  circumstances."  —  "  So,  so,  —  I  see,  —  mum's  the 
word."  Well,  neither  is  quite  ready  to  trust  the 
other,  neither  quite  ready  to  know  the  worst :  so 
long  as  a  blow  is  suspended,  it  may  not  fall ;  and  so, 
with  desperate  exertions,  they  change  the  subject, 
converse  on  things  indifferent,  or  subside  into  more 
or  less  moody  meditations  upon  their  respective 
chances  and  prospects. 

Any  jobber  who  has  seen  service  will  tell  you 
stories  without   number    of   these   vexatious   experi- 


A    DRY-GOODS   JOBBER.  28/ 

ences,  sometimes  dashed  with  the  comical  in  no 
common  measure.  He  will  tell  you  of  how  they 
arrived  at  the  last  town  on  the  railroad,  some  six  or 
seven  of  them ;  of  how  not  a  word  had  been  lisped 
of  their  destination  ;  of  the  stampede  from  the  rail- 
road-station to  the  tavern ;  of  the  spirited  bids  for 
horses  and  wagons ;  of  the  chopfallen  disap^Doint- 
ment  of  the  man  for  whom  no  vehicle  remained ;  of 
his  steeple-chase  a-bare-back ;  and  of  their  various 
successes  with  writs  and  officers,  in  their  rush  for  the 
store  of  the  delinquent  debtors.  Of  three  such 
Jehus,  the  story  goes,  that,  two  of  them  having 
bought  the  monopoly  of  the  inside  of  the  only  vehi- 
cle, and  in  so  doing,  as  they  thought,  having  utterly 
precluded  any  chance  for  the  third,  their  dauntless 
competitor  instantly  mounted  with  the  driver,  com- 
menced negotiations  for  the  horse,  which  speedily 
resulted  in  a  purchase,  and  thereupon  detached  the 
horse  from  the  vehicle,  drove  on,  and  effected  a  first 
attachment,  which  secured  his  debt. 

The  occurrence  of  "  a  bad  year  "  compels  many  a 
jobber  to  abandon  his  store  and  home  for  one,  two, 
or  three  months  together,  and  visit  his  customers, 
scattered  all  over  the  land,  to  make  collections. 
Then  it  is  that  the  power  of  persuasion,  if  possessed, 
is  brought  into  efficient  use ;  discrimination,  too,  is 
demanded,  good  judgment,  and  power  of  combina- 
tion ;  for  a  debt  that  cannot  be  paid  in  money  may 
possibly  be  paid  partly  in  money,  or  in  merchandise 
of  some  sort,  and  in  part  secured  :  and,  among  the 


288  BUSINESS    LIFE    ILLUSTRATED. 

securities  offered,  to  choose  those  which  will  involve 
the  least  delay  is  generally  no  easy  matter. 

To  those  who,  without  experience,  are  commenc- 
ing a  jobbing  business,  a  capital  of  thirty,  forty,  or 
fifty  thousand  dollars,  seems  an  inexhaustible  fund. 
Experience  teaches,  that  an  incautious  and  unskilful 
man  may  easily  bury  even  the  largest  of  these  sums 
in  a  single  season.  If  not  actually  lost,  it  has,  in 
effect,  ceased  to  be  capital,  because  it  cannot  be 
collected  ;  and  the  notes  he  has  taken  are  such  as 
will  not  be  discounted. 

Success  in  the  jobbing  business  makes  such  de- 
mand on  talent  and  capacity  as  outsiders  seldom 
dream  of.  Half  a  dozen  secretaries  of  state,  with  a 
governor  and  a  president  thrown  in,  would  not  suffice 
to  constitute  a  first-class  jobbing-firm.  The  general 
or  special  incompetency  of  these  distinguished  func- 
tionaries in  their  several  spheres  may  probably  be 
covered  by  the  capacity  of  their  subordinates.  The 
President  of  these  United  States  —  of  late  years,  at 
all  events  —  is  not  supposed  to  be  in  a  position  to 
know  whether  the  will  is  or  is  not  "  a  self-determin- 
ing power."  But  no  jobbing-firm  can  thus  cloak  its 
deficiencies,  or  shirk  its  responsibilities.  Goods 
must  be  bought  and  sold,  and  paid  for  ;  and  a  master- 
spirit in  each  department,  capable  of  penetrating  to 
every  particular,  and  .of  controlling  every  subordi- 
nate, cannot  be  dispensed  with.  He  must  know 
that  every  man  to  whom  he  delegates  any  portion  of 
his  work  is  competent  and  trustworthy.     He  must 


A    DRY-GOODS  JOBBER.  289 

be  able  to  feel  that  the  thing  which  he  deputes  to 
each  will  be  as  surely  and  as  faithfully  done  as 
though  done  by  his  own  hand.  No  criticism  is  more 
common  or  more  depreciatory  than  that  "  such  a  one 
will  not  succeed,  because  he  has  surrounded  himself 
with  incompetent  men." 

It  is  much  to  be  regretted  that  it  cannot  be  said, 
that  no  man  can  succeed  in  the  jobbing  business  who 
is  not  a  model  of  courtesy.  Unhappily,  our  com- 
munity has  not  yet  reached  that  elevation.  But  this 
may  with  truth  be  affirmed,  —  that  many  a  man  fails 
for  the  want  of  courtesy,  and  from  the  want  of  that 
good  will  to  his  fellows  from  which  all  real  courtesy 
springs.  There  is  small  chance  for  any  man  to  suc- 
ceed who  does  not  command  his  own  spirit.  There 
is  no  chance  whatever  for  an  indolent  man,  and,  in 
the  long  run,  little  or  no  chance  for  the  dishonest 
man.  The  same  must  be  said  for  the  timid  and  for 
the  rash  man.  Nor  can  we  offer  any  encouragement 
to  the  intermittent  man.  From  year's  end  to  year's 
end,  the  dry-goods  jobber  finds  himself  necessitated 
to  be  studying  his  stock  and  his  ledger.  He  knows, 
that,  while  men  sleep,  the  enemy  will  be  sowing  tares. 
In  his  case,  the  flying  moments  are  the  enemy,  and 
bad  stock  and  bad  debts  are  the  tares.  To  weed 
out  each  of  these  is  his  unceasing  care.  And,  as 
both  the  one  and  the  other  are  forever  choking  the 
streams  of  income  which  should  supply  the  means 
of  paying  his  own  notes,  his  no  less  constant  care 
is  to  provide  such  other  conduits  as  shall  insure  him 


290  BUSINESS    LIFE    ILLUSTRATED. 

always  a  full  basin  at  the  bank.  Nobody  but  a  job- 
ber can  know  the  vexation  of  a  jobber  who  cannot 
find  money  to  cash  his  notes  when  they  are  begin- 
ning to  be  thrown  into  the  market  at  a  price  a  shade 
lower  than  his  neighbor's  notes  are  sold  at. 

In  conclusion,  a  few  material  facts  should  be 
stated. 

As  a  general  proposition,  it  is  not  to  be  denied, 
that  those  who  are  in  haste  to  get  rich  will  find  in 
the  dry-goods  jobbing  business  many  temptations  and 
snares  into  which  one  may  easily  fall.  A  young  man 
who  is  not  fortified  by  a  faithful  home-training,  and 
by  sound  religious  principle,  will  be  likely  enough  to 
degenerate  into  a  heartless  money-maker. 

While  the  young  man  \vho  has  been  well  trained  at 
home,  who  appreciates  good  manners,  good  morals, 
and  good  books,  will  derive  immense  advantage  in 
acquiring  that  quick  discernment,  that  intuitive  ap- 
prehension of  the  rights  and  of  the  i^leasure  of  others, 
and  that  nice  tact,  which  characterize  the  highest 
style  of  merchants,  he  who  has  not  been  thus  pre- 
pared will  be  more  than  likely  to  mistake  brusqiccrie 
for  manliness,  and  brutality  for  the  sublime  of  inde- 
pendence. As  in  a  great  house  there  are  vessels 
unto  honor,  and  also  unto  dishonor,  so,  in  the  pur- 
lieus of  the  dry-goods  trade,  there  are  gentlemen  who 
would  honor  and  adorn  any  society,  and  also  men 
whose  manners  would  shame  Hottentots ;  whose 
language,  innocent  of  all  preference  for  Worcester 
or  Webster,  a  terror  to  all  decent  ideas,  like  scare- 


A    DRY-GOODS  JOBBER.  29I 

crows  in  cornfields,  is  dressed  in  the  cast-off  garments 
of  the  refuse  of  all  classes. 

Success  in  retailing  does  not  necessarily  qualify  a 
man  to  succeed  in  the  dry-goods  jobbing  business. 
The  game  is  played  on  a  much  larger  scale ;  it  in- 
cludes other  chances,  and  demands  other  qualifica- 
tions, natural  and  acquired.  Instances  are  not  want- 
ing of  men,  who,  in  the  smaller  towns,  had  made  to 
themselves  a  name,  and  acquired  an  honorable  inde- 
pendence, sinking  both  capital  and  courage  in  their 
endeavors  to  manage  the  business  of  a  city-jobber. 

It  should  be  well  remembered,  that  while  it  is  not 
indispensable  to  success  in  the  jobbing  business  that 
each  partner  should  be  an  expert  in  every  department 
of  the  business,  —  in  buying,  selling,  collecting,  pay- 
ing, and  book-keeping,  —  it  is  absolutely  necessary 
that  each  should  be  such  in  his  own  department,  and 
that  the  firm,  as  a  unit,  should  include  a  completely 
competent  man  for  each  and  every  one  of  these  de- 
partments. The  lack  of  the  qualities  which  are  indis- 
pensable to  any  one  of  these  may,  and  probably  will, 
prove  an  abyss  deep  enough  to  engulf  the  largest 
commercial  ship  afloat. 

Finally,  to  avoid  disappointment,  the  man  who 
would  embark  in  the  dry-goods  trade  should  make 
up  his  mind  to  meet  every  variety  of  experience 
known  to  mortals,  and  to  be  daunted  by  nothing. 
He  will  assuredly  find  fair  winds  and  head  winds, 
clear  skies  and  cloudy  skies,  head  seas  and  cross 
seas,  as  well  as  stern  seas.     A  wind  that  justifies 


292  BUSINESS   LIFE   ILLUSTRATED. 

Studding-sails  may  change,  without  premonition,  to  a 
gale  that  will  make  ribbons  of  topsails  and  of  storm- 
sails.  The  best  crew  afloat  cannot  preclude  all  casu- 
alties, or  exclude  sleepless  nights  and  cold  sweats 
now  and  then  ;  but  a  quick  eye,  a  cool  head,  a  prompt 
hand,  and  indomitable  perseverance,  will  overcome 
•almost  all  things. 

[This  outline  of  a  business  life  was  sketched  in  the  heyday  of  New 
England's  jobbing  history.  The  number  of  her  jobbers  was  larger 
than  at  any  period  before  or  since.  Their  ambition  as  a  class  might  be 
considered  to  have  reached  its  climax.  As  a  class  they  were  viewed 
with  envy.  The  good  results  of  a  successful  business  were  more 
evenly  diffused  than  in  more  recent  days.  There  was  competition 
then,  as  I  have  indicated.  But  the  day  had  not  then  fully  come  for  the 
illustration  of  how  a  few  ambitious  men,  with  unusual  facilities,  and 
great  capacity  for  hardness  and  endurance,  could  monopolize  a  business 
and  drive  almost  all  competitors  out  of  it.  The  best  and  happiest 
period  for  any  business,  is  that  in  which  a  competent  number  of  per- 
sons dedicated  to  it  may  acquire  a  fair  support  in  its  pursuit  without 
injurious  toil,  without  detriment  to  body  or  soul,  without  such  oppress- 
ive strain  as  precludes  the  best  cultivation  of  mind  and  heart.  We 
live  in  hope  of  a  day  in  which  the  intelligent  and  well-educated  minis- 
ter may  find  a  way  to  point  out  the  metes  and  bounds  which  define  the 
fields  of  legitimate  labor,  whether  for  body,  mind,  or  heart.  It  is  cer- 
tain that  many,  very  many  business  men  at  present  miss  the  divisions 
which  should  enable  them  to  make  the  most  and  the  best  of  life.  Me 
who  would  be  a  useful  religious  teacher  cannot  take  refuge  always  in 
abstract  tmth  ;  he  must  know  as  much  as  possible  of  the  formative 
influences  which  are  making  the  people  of  his  charge  what  they  are. 
After  carefully  considering  all  that  may  be  truly  affirmed  of  the  war- 
rant to  do  a  very  large  business,  because  of  one's  finding  himself 
endued  with  the  genius  for  doing  it,  it  is  also  to  be  considered  whether 
any  man,  however  largely  endowed  with  a  genius  for  drawing  all  the 
business  into  his  warehouse,  has  a  moral  right  to  do  this  to  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  livelihood  of  ten,  twenty,  or  a  hundred  neighbors.  Obvi- 
ously only  one  or  two  in  a  hundied,  or  in  a  thousand,  can  succeed  in  this 


A   DRY-GOODS   JOBBER,  293 

modern  scheme  of  monopolizing  all  the  business,  by  underselling,  and 
so  annihilating  others.  That  our  Lord  Jesus  would  not  countenance 
any  such  selfish  course,  needs  no  argument.  "  Thou  shalt  love  thy 
neighbor  as  thyself,"  begins  and  ends  the  argument.  His  warning 
precedes  and  follows  this  :  "  They  that  will  be  rich,  fall  into  tempta- 
tion and  a  snare,  which  drown  men's  souls  in  destruction  and  perdi- 
tion." Said  a  wealthy  merchant  to  his  physician  and  intimate  friend : 
"  No  man  ever  made  a  million  of  dollars  honestly.''^  He  had  nearly  a 
million  and  a  quarter  when  he  said  it.] 


COMMENDATIONS. 


"  Heaven.  —  I  have  seen  nothing  on  the  subject  which  pleased  me 
so  much.  The  views  are  original,  and  I  think  just.  Some  of  them  1  do 
not  remember  to  have  seen  presented  at  all ;  and  others  not  so  well."  — 
Rev.  Dr.  Mark  Hopkins.,  Williams  College,  Mass. 

"  The  book  is  full  of  beautiful  ideas,  consoling  hopes,  and  brilliant 
representations  of  human  destiny ;  all  presented  in  a  chaste,  pleasing, 
and  very  readable  style." — New  York  Chronicler 

"  I  LIKE  his  way  of  approaching  the  subject.  The  book  develops  in 
a  very  pleasing  manner  a  line  of  thought  peculiar  and  untouched  by  any 
of  the  many  who  have  written  on  it."  —  Rev.  Prof.  Saimiel  Harris^ 
Yale  College,  Conn. 

"  We  welcome  this  contribution  to  our  religious  literature.  Free 
from  pedantry,  and  the  conventionalities  of  logic  and  style,  it  comes  to 
us  with  a  freshness  of  thought  and  a  fervor  of  feeling  that  are  ofteji 
wanting  in  a  scholar's  page.  The  author  draws  illustrations  some- 
times from  scenes  with  which  the  professional  teacher  is  little  conver- 
sant."—  Neiv  York  Independent. 

"  Death,  as  seen  from  Mr.  K.'s  point  of  view,  is  a  natural  event  in 
the  order  of  the  Christian's  life.  Instead  of  recoiling  from  inevitable 
destiny,  we  are  led  by  this  more  familiar  view  to  look  upon  the  change 
without  fear,  yea,  with  cheerfulness."^— A'^t'.  Dr.  H.  B.  Hackett,  Newton 
Theological  Seminary. 

"  Full  of  pointed  illustrations,  fresh,  vigorous  writing ;  nothing  dull ; 
short,  crisp  sentences  ;  the  reader  is  borne  on  rapidly  ;  the  writer  speaks 
as  though  his  thoughts  rushed  upon  him.  A  fullness  of  nature,  and 
joy  in  life  runs  through  it."  —  S.  K.  B. 


COMMENDATIONS. 

"  I  HAVE  read  it  a  second  time,  and  more  reflectively  than  at  first ;  and 
under  this  second  reading  its  value  has  risen  in  iiy  estimation.  His 
method  is  the  true  one;  for  Scripture  makes  Heaven  to  be  but  the  full 
development  and  perfection  of  the  spiritual  life  in  an  appropriate  world, 
and  in  fitting  circumstances  ;  and  this  is  the  Heaven  whicii  this  book 
sweetly  and  beautifully  sets  forth.  Sounder  doctrine  concerning  Heaven 
J  have  not  seen."  —  Rev.  Dr.  Thomas  H.  Skinner,  Union  Theological 
Seminary,  New  York. 

"The  author  is  certainly  an  independent  thinker,  as  well  as  a 
vigorous  writer,  and  has  written  a  book  that  will'  please  the  thoughtful, 
and  will  astonish  pious  people,  who  seldom,  and  always  timidly,  think. 
Free  from  the  technicalities  of  theological  science,  his  style  is  all  the 
more  pleasing.  In  short,  everything  about  the  book  is  fresh  and  racy. 
The  author's  views  of  the  society,  joy,  and  occupations  of  Heaven  are 
somewhat  peculiar,  but  not  the  less  philosophical  and  acceptable.  We 
admire  him  intensely,  and  wish  him  God-speed." — Western  Literary 
Messenger. 

"  It  is  one  of  the  most  interesting  books  I  have  ever  perused.  I 
purpose  that  many  of  my  friends  and  neighbors  shall  read  it.  No  one 
can  read  it,  certainly  no  Christian,  without  profit." — Rev.  E.  Bridgman, 
Shanghai,  China. 

"  I  HAVE  read  Mr.  K.'s  book  with  no  small  pleasure.  The  trans- 
parency of  its  style  carries  you  along  most  agreeably,  and  the  vigor  of  its 
thoughts  impresses  you  and  sets  you  a  thinkinf^  for  yourself.  The 
book  is  full  of  thought,  and  there  is  much  beauty  both  of  sentiment  and 
words ;  and  no  one  will  be  wearied  with  its  chapters,  nor  think  them  too 
many,  nor  too  long."  —  Rev.  Dr.  Horatius  Bonar,  Edinburgh,  Scot- 
land. 


Date  Due 

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